Crash
by ObdurateSinner
Summary: Cadet pilot Eren finds himself in an airplane accident and is saved by the one [helicopter] pilot that he absolutely cannot stand...but he doesn't know it is the same guy he wishes he could just punch. Rated M for future chapters.
1. Chapter 1: Strangers

**A/N: This is an idea that I've been playing around with for a while, so I can only hope that it came out alright. Essentially, it is a Eren x Levi fic although I'm not sure if it's Ereri or Riren. We will see how it goes as time goes on. Other pairings may exist or be hinted at in future chapters, but as I've said in the summary, I will give each chapter its relative warnings.**

**Enjoy :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan or any of the characters from the anime/manga.**

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><p>The clear, cool winter night air was as smooth as silk as it enveloped the fuselage of the small four-seat aircraft as she cruised effortlessly through the sky. With no turbulence in the air, the gentle hum of the single engine created a soothing lullaby that would've sang the occupants to sleep had the view below them not been so stunning.<p>

Karanese was a beautiful city from the ground, but that beauty was dwarfed when viewed from above. The majestic and well-lit buildings towering high into the night sky seemed to skim just below the wings of the Cessna as she flew over them. The dark of the night was broken by the vibrant city lights, shining from within the buildings, from around the buildings and even from between them. At only two thousand feet above the ground, the cars were easy to see as they drove through the grid that is the city's roads.

"Wow," Armin breathed, his voice cracking through the headset.

The slight blonde sat with his head against the window in the back left seat of the aircraft, his eyes wide as if he feared he'd miss the scenery if he even drooped his lids a millimeter. Completely mesmerized by the sight, Armin never could have imagined in all his life that the concrete jungle could look so breath-taking. It made him feel guilty for lusting to find beauty elsewhere when he was surrounded by such a unique living entity all his life.

The brunette in the front left seat smiled a cocky smile and looked down on the city. It was a sight he'd seen before, but when he saw it that first – and last – time, it was on a training flight and he had very little time to gawk. But even then he recognized the beauty and vowed to bring his best friend, who appreciated landscapes and scenery more than anybody, on a flight over the Karanese CBD. If he had a girlfriend, he would've definitely brought her with, but since his love-life was the eternal drought, he had brought his adoptive sister along for the scenic ride.

Mikasa sat beside him, eyes fixed on the beauty below her and chin tucked into her favorite red scarf. She had been silent since the engine had started, and if the brunette didn't know any better, he would've thought Mikasa was afraid of flying.

Hell, in an aluminum tube that weighted less than most decent cars, even when it had a full payload and full fuel, _anybody_ could develop an instant fear of flying.

As to not offend himself, Eren simply took her silence for appreciation and never questioned her.

With a sigh, he turned his attention back inside the aircraft. He was at a mandatory reporting point and had to alert the other aircraft in the area of his intentions. Pushing the PTT button, he began to speak in a smooth and professional voice, broadcasting on the radio.

"Traffic in Karanese special rules area, this is X-ray Echo Yankee, Charlie one-seven-two, currently overhead Karanese CBD at seven thousand, five hundred feet. Descending now to six thousand feet to operate overhead for the next one-zero minutes. Any traffic, please advise."

He released the button and turned to Mikasa, whose grey eyes were trained on him. The awe and admiration in her eyes was as clear as the sound of the engine of the aircraft, and Eren was definitely not oblivious to this. He had gotten the same look from her every time he spoke on the radio, and he knew for a fact it was because Mikasa never thought she'd ever hear Eren speak so calmly and professionally. If she closed her eyes she wouldn't recognize the voice as his at all.

But before Eren could say anything to her, the radio came alive in all of their ears.

"X-ray Echo Yankee, be advised Robbie forty-four Lima Alpha Hotel is operating overhead Karanese CBD at six thousand for the next one-five minutes."

Eren's brows knit down fiercely and he cussed softly before pushing his PTT button with much more force than was necessary. "Copy traffic…uh…X-ray Echo Yankee to descend to seven thousand and route back to Karanese Central Airport." He released his PTT and hissed, "Dick."

It was the same man. Eren not only recognized the call-sign by now, but the man's voice had become stuck in Eren's mind. It was the smooth monotone of what could only be a certified douchebag, which had to be true since the man was the pilot of a Robinson forty-four helicopter. Everyone knew that chopper pilots were douchebags by default.

Especially this one. This man seemed to pop up everywhere the young fixed-wing pilot wanted to fly, creeping up in his airspace and forcing Eren to deviate and reroute his flights more often than not. It had started to feel like this man was purposefully trying to sabotage Eren's flights as the teen could not remember a single flight out of his last ten where the call-sigh 'Lima Alpha Hotel' had not forced him to change his own plans.

With an irritated sigh, Eren turned the small aircraft around to head back to the airport from which they came.

"Uh, sorry guys, we're gonna have to head back now since that _idiot_," Eren glared out of the window, catching a glimpse of the offending aircraft below him at ten o' clock "is taking up the entire freaking city with his ego so we have no space to operate."

Mikasa didn't reply. She simply nodded despite knowing Eren's attention was on flying the aircraft.

"Is that the guy you told me about?" Armin asked through his headset.

"Yours truly," Eren replied. Once the aircraft was tracking back to Karanese, Eren turned to look at Armin, a dangerous glint in his green eyes. "I swear I will find him one day and give him a good piece of my mind."

Armin chuckled, thinking to himself that he would love to be a fly on the wall to witness that confrontation. Eren may not be scared of confrontations and fights, but he wasn't particularly good at them. More often than not, Mikasa either had to come to his aid physically or Armin had to aid Eren by talking the boy out of a tight situation. The blonde wondered how Eren would fare with no backup.

As they flew, Eren's mind wondered to the fateful encounter at his part-time job more than a year ago that had gotten him where he is now: the proud owner of a PPL (private pilot license) and well on his way to getting his commercial license. It was simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

_It was a quiet day at the small coffee shop, with only two customers occupying separate tables in the cozy establishment. The two waiters on duty, Eren and Sasha, were talking amongst themselves since their respective customers were both eating lunch and would call when they required assistance again._

"_So you're going to culinary school?" Eren confirmed._

_Sasha smiled widely, her brown eyes alight with excitement at the mere thought of dedicating her life to her one true love: food. It was not surprising to Eren per se, but he honestly had no idea that Sasha's passion for food went any further than simply eating it._

"_Yes!" she squealed, clapping her hands. Her shoulders hunched and her eyes became dreamy as she continued. "Just imagine the things I will learn to create! I will be able to make myself a masterpiece for every meal of the day and enjoy gourmet snacks for as long as I live!"_

_Eren laughed at her and snuck a quick peek at his customer to make sure he wasn't being summoned. The tall blonde had his head down, most likely eating._

"_What are you going to do?" Sasha asked. "Have you applied to go to university?"_

"_Hah," Eren scoffed. "And attend 'school' for another four years? Forget it. When I'm done with school, I'm done _forever_! I wanna get into flying."_

"_Like…a pilot?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Oh! Marco is doing that. He says its super expensive."_

_Eren sighed and nodded. He was well aware of the costs involved, and it was definitely not affordable. Even though his father was a doctor, he still wouldn't be able to afford to send both Eren to flight school and Mikasa to university simultaneously. This fact had less to do with his actual salary than it had to do with the questionable hobbies he engaged in._

"_I've applied for a cadet program with Wings Aviation," Eren said. "I still haven't heard anything from them though. I don't think my math mark makes the cut…" Just then, his customer raised a hand to grab Eren's attention. "Excuse me, Sasha."_

_Eren went over to his customer's table, smiling brightly as he asked what assistance the blonde businessman required. The man requested the bill, his bright blue eyes sincere and warm, yet calculating and somewhat secretive. As Eren rang up the man's meal, he found himself hoping that the man would leave a decent tip – the man looked wealthy, sporting a tailored suit and an expensive wristwatch, so he shouldn't be too upset to part with his money. Conversely, rich customers could also be stingy ones. Setting his hopes aside, he returned the bill to the man._

_As the man settled his bill, he made small talk with Eren. "Are you interested in becoming a pilot?" He had a kind yet authoritative voice._

"_Yes, sir," Eren said with a wide smile. A small blush adorned his tan cheeks as he wondered just how loud he and Sasha must have been talking._

"_I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear you talking with your colleague," the man said as if he could read Eren's mind. "What type flying are you interested in doing?"_

"_Geez, anything really!" Eren's face lit up as countless possibilities swarmed his mind. "I would love to do bush piloting, fire spotting, poacher hunting…all sorts, really. I'll do airline when I'm a bit older and more settled but I really wanna try my hand at everything that has a prop before I hit the jets."_

_The man smiled a warm smile as he listened intently to Eren. The boy was definitely passionate about flying, it was obvious by the way he spoke about it. He also looked ambitious and eager to get himself out there, qualities the man desperately sought out in the youth, qualities that had become increasingly difficult to find._

"_Well," the man said, handing Eren his business card, "I'm one of the cadet recruiters at Wings Aviation and I heard that you've sent an application in. Please send that application directly to my business email and I'll ensure you get a spot in the first round of psychometric evaluations…" His eyes narrowed in one Eren's name badge. "Eren."_

_Eren stared at the card in his hand, mouth agape. It was a smart yet simple business card with only professional details, including the name Erwin Smith, his title, and contact details._

"_You are older than eighteen, right?" the man, Erwin, asked._

_Eren blushed. He had a young face and many who didn't know him wouldn't believe he was older than sixteen, despite him being just a few days shy of eighteen. "Yes, sir. I'm turning eighteen next week."_

"_Fantastic," the man said as he got to his feet. "I can't promise that you will get accepted for the program, Eren, but I will promise you a spot in the assessment. What happens after that is up to the system."_

"_Yes, sir! No worries, sir! If I get the chance, I definitely won't scr-mess it up! You'll have my application first thing in the morning."_

"_Good. And good luck, Eren. I hope to see you soon."_

_They shook hands before the man left, leaving Eren reeling. When Eren grabbed the bill that had been paid cash, and counted the money in the binder, he saw that the man had paid more than double the amount on the bill. With wide eyes Eren grinned as he realized this tip would cover the last bit he needed for the GPS he'd been saving up for._

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><p>Eren had gotten his PPL on his nineteenth birthday, a year and a week after his encounter with Erwin Smith. Now, while most of his high school friends were either working full time or studying at university, Eren had the luxurious lifestyle of flying around for hours on end every day. The cadet program paid not only for the training, but also for accommodation, and in addition to that he received pocket money monthly. With all the free time he had between flights, he'd gotten a job as a waiter and barman at a nearby bar, just to keep himself busy.<p>

The theory, however, was not as easy as the flying. Eren had always been more of a hands-on person than he was a mental person. Because of this, he had to pay extra attention in ground school classes, and when he studied, he often had to enlist the help of his friends.

Today, he needed the help on none other the Reiner Braun. Eren had known the tall, stocky blonde from high school but the two weren't exactly close. They spoke now and then, and hung out but their friendship wasn't nearly like what Eren had with Armin. Reiner, however, was busy with a course to become an aircraft mechanic and had agreed to help Eren with the basic workings of an airplane engine. What Eren had learnt in class and what his textbook told him was not nearly sufficient to ensure a pass.

The two boys sat in the living room of the small two-bedroom apartment that Eren shared with one of the other students at his flight school. Since his roommate was gone, the two boys decided to use the warmer living room to work, sitting on the warm rug on the floor. Music played softly in the background as Reiner tried to explain, unsuccessfully, the basics the strokes of a piston.

"This is top-dead-centre," Reiner explained, pointing to one of the diagrams of a piston in Eren's book. "The name is because of the shaft position. See, it's at the top, so it's pretty easy to remember." He pointed to another diagram. "See, with bottom-dead-centre, the shaft is at the bottom. Kapish?"

"Yeah I get _that_!" Eren grunted as he ran his fingers through his thick, chocolate brown hair. "What I'm struggling with is this…" He pointed at one of the diagrams, his finger circling the area. "…whatever this shit is!"

"Dude, it's so easy," Reiner said. "It's just the phases of the stroke. There are four…"

"I know _that_…" Eren mumbled under his breath. "I know the names of the four strokes, Reiner. Induction stroke, compression stroke, expulsion stroke…"

"Exhaust stroke," Reiner corrected.

Eren grunted in frustration and threw his hands up in the air. If he was unable to simply memorize the names of the strokes, how could anyone expect him to remember exactly what happened during each one. He'd hoped Reiner would be a little more helpful, but the burly blonde simply sat with his arms folded across his chest, eyes trained on Eren as if Eren was an extra-terrestrial.

"I need to know _why_ the things that happen happen at the times they do," Eren said.

Reiner quirked a brow. Eren's frustration was clearly not getting through to the blonde. "It's simply a matter of common sense."

"Well, clearly I don't have any common sense since none of this makes any sense to me!"

The frustration was quickly becoming anger as Eren's fiery temper and hopelessness began a dangerous tango. But before he could get too involved in the emotional dance, Reiner spoke again.

"Dude, do you have a vagina or something?"

Eren jerked upright and his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he stared at Reiner in utter disbelief, all anger forgotten. "W-wh…WHAT?"

Reiner cocked his head to the side and simply stated, "The workings of an engine is to a man like breathing. Instinctual, natural, it just happens without thinking. Kapish?"

"Uh…" Eren was at a loss for words. Reiner sat nodding to himself as if he were extremely pleased with his metaphor. "In case you forgot, my father is a _doctor_ and I only have a sister, no brothers! How the hell was I supposed to learn 'the workings of an engine'?"

Reiner sighed. "That is a natural discovery boys go through when they grow and become men, Eren. It is a rite of passage into manhood."

"That'd actually be puberty…"

"Puberty is the physical change. A boy is not a man until his mind, body and soul have all matured into a manlike state."

"Unbelievable…" Eren whispered.

The brunette, clearly not going to win against Reiner's warped sense of masculinity, decided to call it a day. Eren thanked Reiner for coming before shooing him away in the most polite manner possible…which, considering Eren's lack of diplomacy, was not polite at all.

Once alone again, Eren threw himself onto the couch and stared up at the ceiling, frustrated. Since high school, he was never one of the smart kids, but he always worked hard. He gave his best and more, studying day in and day out with Armin so that he would do well in his tests and exams. Despite his lacking in subjects such as math and science, Eren worked hard and persisted until his D's became B's, and at the end of it all, he finished high school in the top ten.

Why now, when he had the most pressure on him, could he not simply just absorb the information before him? Was it because he no longer had Armin – ever enthusiastic, mind-bogglingly intelligent and always willing to help – to study with him? He had considered asking Armin to help, but that would be useless because of two major factors:

A) Armin was at university slaving his own ass off in first year medicine, so he had no time and most likely no brain capacity to spare.

B) Armin probably knew even less about engines than Eren.

With a long sigh, Eren decided to give up. The sun was beginning to set and he was in no mood to work into the night. He decided he'd try again tomorrow, but before giving up on aviation entirely, he texted Marco.

_**Eren: **__When are you flying down to Jean again? Want a co-pilot?_

Eren's phone vibrated barely a minute later.

_**Marco:**_ _This Saturday, actually. Thanks, that'd be great! I'm looking to depart at 06:00 LMT so we can have as much time there as possible. That ok?_

_**Eren:**__ You're the captain. See you on Saturday._

At least that was one thing to look forward to. The only use his horse-faced high school rival had for Eren anymore was to build hours. After school, Jean had moved to the coast to attend university, and since Marco and Jean were still in a steady relationship, Marco flew down once in a while. Eren would always offer to fly a leg, easing the workload and the financial burden for Marco.

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><p>The high-pitched whining of the helicopter engine starting up soon turned to a whirr as the rotors gained momentum. They started to spin faster and faster until the whine and the whir were overwhelmed by the chopping sound of blades cutting through the air in a blur. The pilot's fingers deftly toggled switches as he set up his aircraft for lift-off, neglecting to use his checklist as he configured the helicopter. When he was satisfied with the checks and configuration, he held his right index finger on the PTT button on the side of his headset, depressing the button to talk.<p>

"Karanese Central tower good…" He checked the expensive watch on his right wrist. "…afternoon. Lima Alpha Hotel."

There was a brief moment of silence before a woman with a cheerful voice called over the radio. "Lima Alpha Hotel, good afternoon to you sir! Go ahead."

"Lima Alpha Hotel, Robby forty-four, one plus one on board, request a quickie to the Karenese training area for approximately three-zero minutes."

The strawberry blonde passenger to the left of the pilot stared at him in fascination as he spoke, hearing his smooth voice through her own headset as it synchronized with the movements of his lips. A blush crept into her cheeks as she remembered just how soft those lips were, despite the man's hard personality.

"Lima Alpha Hotel, runway two-niner in use, QNH is one-zero-one-niner. After departure remain below four thousand six hundred feet and report outbound at the power station. Fuel endurance, sir?"

"One hour thirty minutes endurance. Runway two-nine, QNH one-zero-one-nine. Four six after departure to report power station." The raven-haired pilot sighed. He hated this part of flying. Incessant talking was not something he enjoyed, and would often reply curtly despite the standard radio calls already being as straightforward as legally possible.

"Read back is correct sir! Lift-off is approved. Report ready to cross the active."

"Ready to cross next."

Not even bothering to add his call-sign to the read-back, the pilot was about to increase throttle to lift the machine off the ground when the controller spoke again.

"Another date, Levi?"

The pilot hissed before depressing his PTT button again. "No. A friend."

"That's what they _all_ say!" the controller sang.

The strawberry blonde passenger blushed a deep crimson at the controller's words, something that didn't go unnoticed by the raven-haired pilot. He clicked his tongue as he commenced the flight, letting the rotors lift the aircraft off the ground and hovering on the spot for just a moment before gently accelerating forward.

"Relax, Petra," he said when he caught a glimpse of white knuckles. "It's not like it's my first time."

"Well, it is mine!" the woman retorted.

"Just enjoy the fucking flight."

Despite it being quite bumpy due to the time of day, Petra eventually did calm down. She knew Levi was a man who could handle anything, and his cool demeanor as he expertly handled the aircraft as well as the radio work – she never knew the man could say so much in one breath – made her confidence grow. In the end, she enjoyed the scenic flight, all but forgetting the reason she'd taken it.

Only once they were back inside the terminal did Petra fully relax. Even though Levi had unwavering confidence and a control over the aircraft she couldn't think anyone could have, she was happy to have her feet planted back on mother earth's firm surface. They had barely made it into the building and Petra was already making a beeline for the bar.

At the bar, the two of them grabbed a cozy table in a corner that had two couches on opposite ends of the table. She sat on one and he sat on the other. As he looked through the menu, Petra couldn't help but look at him…really _look_ at him. He wore a simply grey dress shirt with an open collar, and the blackest jeans she'd ever seen. His footwear consisted of dress shoes, although they seemed very casual, and the only accessory he wore was an expensive silver watch with gold detailing…or was that perhaps platinum?

"Order a drink. It's on me."

Petra snapped out of her subtle gawking at his commanding tone. She shook her head and said, "I can't do that. It's not a date."

His eyes met hers then, the grey orbs flashed dangerously despite them being deep, emotionless wells. He leaned forward and watched as she shrunk back from him despite being separated by an entire table.

"I'm a gentleman. Now order a fucking drink."

When their drinks arrived, a cocktail for Petra and an expensive whiskey for Levi, they sat in silence for the longest time as they sipped on their respective drinks. While Levi was more than content with the silence, enjoying nothing more than a whiskey after a flight, Petra felt somewhat awkward. It wasn't like it had been in the helicopter, the constant sound of the engine filling the silence. Here, in this bar, it was too quiet.

"You sure live the life, don't you," Petra suddenly said.

"Hm?" Levi raised a brow.

This could have been either an acknowledgement of the statement or a cue to continue, but Petra took it as the latter.

"You have your own chopper and tons of money…you can literally do anything you want, when you want to."

"I don't think I can afford to go to space," Levi said dryly.

Petra snorted. "Who cares about space? You have the life all men want. You probably have no problem getting women into your bed." She winced as she said that, knowing for a fact that that was the truth.

With a cocky smirk, Levi replied, "Name one millionaire with a chopper who does."

Levi eyed the woman incredulously as she shrunk back in discomfort. He knew for a fact that she was thinking about the brief relationship they had, a relationship she ended because the raven had no interest in pursuing marriage or starting a family. Ever since then, Petra had jumped onto the bandwagon that thought Levi entertained women as a hobby. Because he was such a private person, his friends and colleagues often assumed he threw his money around to gain the attention of attractive women.

They couldn't be more wrong.

Levi had no interest in sleeping around, especially with strangers. Despite the obvious risks, the man had an obsession that was borderline insane when it came to cleanliness, and entertaining random strangers would go against every fibre of his being.

Instead of correct, though, he let everyone's dirty imaginations run wild.

"Why are all pilots so cocky?" she muttered.

"Tch! Don't loop me in with those fixed-wing fuckers you like so much."

"What is with you guys and this stupid chopper-plane rivalry?" Petra cried out, remembering a bar fight her boyfriend had recently gotten into with a chopper pilot. It wasn't a serious fight, but it was absolutely ridiculous nonetheless.

"Cats and dogs."

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><p>Safety meetings were not mandatory but were highly recommended. All flight schools and charter companies at Karanese Central Airport had just made attending safety meetings mandatory for all licensed pilots based there. These were simply meetings where pilots got together and received a brush-up on one or other topic relating to aviation for half an hour, and then drank for the rest of the night.<p>

This was Levi's first meeting and before he even made it to the bar, he already hated it. It was noisy and the music was terrible, everyone drinking the same cheap beer and laughing raucously at crude jokes. Most of the population could not have even been twenty-five, but they were acting like a bunch of immature teenagers. Levi made a note to leave as soon as he put his name on the attendance register, whether it was after the meeting or not. The topic 'weather and how it affects flying' was irrelevant to him since he only flew when the sun was out and no clouds were in sight.

He had bought two tots of the best whiskey the bar stocked, which was still a shit whiskey according to his personal standards, and was about to sit down far from the crowd when something caught his attention. A tall, lean boy who could not be a day older than sixteen stood with a beer in his hand and his booming voice dominating the entire bar area. He strutted around with a raven-haired girl at his side, calling out to people and greeting everyone he knew with loud high-fives.

But it wasn't the noise the boy was making or the boy's overwhelming aura that caught Levi's attention. It was the shirt the boy was wearing. It was a plain black T-shirt with bold red writing, the red words bordered by a thin strip of white to make them more visible. The words were simple, saying:

'I may not be perfect, but at least I'm not a helicopter pilot'

Levi's eye visibly twitched at this and he clenched his jaw as he watched the pompous brat work the room as if he owned the place. He watched as people complimented the shirt with high-fives and slaps to the shoulder, loud laughs erupting from all who laid eyes on the offending red text. Every part of Levi was begging him to grab the brat by the neck and throw him to the ground so he could curb-stomp the egotistical teen until the brat became one with the earth.

But he knew better than to do that: he was in the enemy's territory here.

Just as he was about to turn away, the boy's eyes met with his. Levi stopped mid-turn as wide, focused, ocean-green eyes locked with his, a fire in them that the man had never seen in all his life. He couldn't turn away; he was mesmerized by the deep green of the brunette boy across the room, drowning in the powerful presence of the teen as the boy commandeered his attention. After a moment, the teen smiled awkwardly, but that awkward grin still had in it the confidence of a young man who knows the world is his for the taking. Levi had no time to respond before the teen's attention was demanded elsewhere, and he turned away from Levi as if he hadn't seen the man in the first place.

"What the fuck…" Levi muttered.

After the boring, but thankfully brief, safety meeting, Levi all but ran to his car. He could not stand another millisecond of drunk youngsters talking about various aircraft and experiences they had on their flights. He wondered if these kids had anything else in common with one another or if they always only spoke about flying. But it wasn't just the raucous behavior of the young pilots that irked Levi, it was the fact that his eyes constantly searched for the brunette boy with the offensive shirt. Each time their eyes met, the ocean-green orbs would stare a second too long, the glint in them anything from playful to dangerous, but the brunette didn't smile at Levi again the entire evening. What was it about the boy and his intense gaze that had Levi searching for those eyes any chance he got?

As he approached his black, luxury SUV, he noticed a few youngsters had gathered around a motorbike parked nearby. This would've been completely inconsequential had that brat with the offensive shirt not been present. Levi's skin tingled as he remembered the boy's penetrating gazes and that single charming smile, but the man quickly composed himself and continued on his way. Until a certain sentence made him stop dead in his tracks.

"And then the prick says to me 'helicopter pilots can get it up quicker'," the brunette said, with a snicker in his voice.

"As if that old man can get it up at all," another boy, a muscular one with blonde hair added.

The group laughed, urging the brunette to continue. "And then I tune the guy 'well, fixed-wing pilots can keep it up longer'."

The group broke out into a chorus of "oooohhhh's" and "damn" and "shit" while they laughed. Levi watched from the corner of his eyes with hands balled in fists, all but infuriated by what the kids were saying. What made the man even more livid was the fact that he was being infuriated by the brats in the first place. They were nothing more than a bunch of drunk youngsters talking big because they had their safety in numbers.

"Yeah, yeah!" the brunette sang, waving his hand in the air. "Like putting it down anywhere is something to be proud of."

"Talk about zero restraint."

"Uhm…are we still talking about flying?" a black-haired boy asked through his laughter.

"We all know the urge to have a chopper license it so compensate for life's _little shortcomings_," the brawny blonde said with a suggestive wink that sent the laughing crowd of teens into an absolute fit of howling.

"Those fucking brats!" Levi growled. Before he could let them aggravate him any further, he jerked his car's door open and had the engine on before the door was even shut.

Eren watched as the black SUV spun its wheels in an obvious hurry to vacate the area, and the brunette wondered who that could be. He'd never seen that car at a safety meeting before. In fact, he had never seen the well-dressed raven sipping on a whiskey before either. For a moment, he spaced out as he tried to verify this fact. The man couldn't have been attending as someone's partner since every time the brunette looked at the man, he the mysterious man was alone. Perhaps he was someone from another school…

A smack on his shoulder brought the brunette back down to earth. He shook his head with a frown, wondering why the hell it even mattered. The man was a stranger, and the boy would probably never see him again. Unless he really was a pilot operating at Karanese Central, in which case, the brunette would see the man in one month at the next safety meeting.

Eren smiled at this, not caring that it was a strange thing to want to see that dark stranger again. There was something about the man, something that drew his eyes to the man, something that kept him from smiling despite wanting to. There was something about the man that had caught the young pilot's interest, and once the persistent brunette had his sights set on something, it was impossible to divert his focus.

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><p><strong>I hope you enjoyed the story! Follow, favorite, review, do whatever you must! But I will be posting chapters hopefully soon so encouragement and feedback will be wonderful!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2: A Hard Week

**Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan or any of the character or other brands and stuff and things I've mentioned.**

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><p>Being a rich and successful business man because of a generous inheritance did indeed have its very many perks. When one's family was the founders of the largest weapons manufacturing brand – designing and creating everything from small arms to weapons of mass destruction – every child in that family would undoubtedly be taken care of. Not only that, but every first born child would be groomed from a young age to continue the legacy, developing weapons that suited whatever the modernizing world needed.<p>

One of these very many perks was the copious amount of free time said business owner would have. The only time the owner of such a well-run, massive, international company such as Colossus would have to show face at the office would be if something was incredibly wrong. So wrong in fact that it hand already gone through every level of management to the point where not even the CEO could resolve the problem. Instances like that were extremely rare in Colossus, and when they happened, somebody would definitely be losing a job.

On this particular Thursday morning, frightfully cold and adequately gloomy, the newest owner of the company, Levi Ackerman, stormed into the office with a thirst for blood. For the first time in a long time, he was _called_ to work because something had gone wrong somewhere along the line. Heads were sure to roll for this because if there's one thing Levi Ackerman did not like it was being told what to do. He worked when and how he pleased, and being summoned to work like just another worker in the system definitely did not bode well with the millionaire.

Not a single person dared greet him as he marched through the lobby with an aura of dark hatred enveloping him. He made a beeline for the elevator and waited with little patience as it took its sweet time to descend to the ground floor before opening its doors agonizingly slowly. With a growl, Levi boarded the elevator and dared even one person to join him in the already cramped space as he made his way to his office on the top floor of the impressive skyscraper.

The quiet ride in the elevator did little to calm the man down as he thought about the mess that the company had landed itself in, a mess that was described to Levi as potentially being 'the fuck-up of the century'. As if being summoned to work like a bee was not bad enough, it was to see himself lose money. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as a fresh roll of anger course through his body, and he swore then and there to rip the head off of whichever impudent fool who thought it was a splendid idea to betray Colossus and the incredibly violent Levi Ackerman.

When he saw the steaming cup of coffee on his desk, he would've normally felt a wave of relief wash through him shortly followed by the tingling anticipation of caffeine entering his bloodstream. This morning, however, Levi barely acknowledged the fresh coffee waiting for him. He sat down and took a sip of the coffee, letting the strong, black fluid burn its way down his trachea to unleash its toxins into his body. He would allow himself only five minutes of pleasure before he started to do his job.

What was his job description? 'Cleaning up where others fucked up'.

As he enjoyed his coffee, Levi couldn't help where his mind had wandered off to. The first thing he thought of when he woke up this morning was that obnoxious brunette whom he had seen the previous night. Waking up remembering how that pompous brunette strutted around like he owned the place, an offensive shirt gracing his torso, was a sure sign that today was going to be a bad day. Of course, Levi was never wrong, and when he got the call to go to his office to put an end to the thieving saga once and for all, his mood went from bad to worse.

But as the coffee calmed him down – albeit infinitesimally – the warmth radiating through his body took his thoughts in a whole new direction. The memory of the brat's shocking green eyes locking with his across the room, the burning desire to live and live dangerously swirling in his eyes as green met with grey. And then that smile; that sheepish yet dazzling, almost flirtatious smile, a smile riddled with sincerity but also a dangerous confidence. And it wasn't just that one incident. All night, the green eyes sought him out, locking onto him for immeasurable amounts of time as if the world would wait for them to stop staring at one another. The teen couldn't stop looking at the man, and the man couldn't stop himself from returning each and every single gaze the teen sent his way.

Levi groaned and smacked his cup back on the saucer, the calming effect nullified as he stared at the cup like its contents had offended him. What was he doing thinking about a teenager, of all things? It was disgusting, unethical, and probably illegal. That brunette was probably nothing more than an asshole anyway, just another young fixed-wing pilot jumping on the 'let's hate chopper pilots' bandwagon, and who knows how many others. Levi thought to himself that he wouldn't be surprised if the kid was a raging homophobe and a part-time racist as well. If not for the girl that followed him like a dog all night, he would've thought the brat could probably be misogynistic.

He hated the brat already. Hated his existence, his arrogance, his attitude, his damned good looks, his confidence, his captivating aura…

_Damn it, Levi!_ The man smacked a palm down onto his desk and ran his fingers through his hair. He had to focus, _now_. Thinking about beautiful brunette boys would definitely not save his company from ruin, and it definitely would not bring the traitors to justice. He couldn't afford to have these sorts of feelings, especially not now, because he knew just how dangerous it could be.

It could destroy him.

These feelings have nearly destroyed him once before.

Mikasa had invited Eren to join herself and Armin for drinks since it was Thursday and that meant The Garrison had 'student night': happy hour (half-priced drinks) would be extended to three hours and all drinks would have a discount as long as the drinkers could produce a student card. The Garrison was a simple establishment, built like an old military fort. It had four thick walls surrounding an open-aired courtyard, and on each corner was a square tower. The entire establishment was four-storeys high. There was an entrance on each wall, and on the inside, the walls were lined with bars and tiny fast food joints all tucked as close to the wall as possible, giving maximum space for the communal wooden benches that took up the majority of the floor space in the center. Each corner had a staircase that led to age-restricted pubs and clubs in the towers.

The trio couldn't enter those clubs even if they wanted to. They were all only nineteen, and the minimum age for access to the lowest age-restricted club was twenty one. They didn't mind though, since none of them were dancers. The entrance fee and drinks were ridiculously expensive at those clubs anyway, Mikasa had said after having managed to get in with some of her lady friends once.

Seeing his friends again made Eren's week. Sure, he'd seen Mikasa just yesterday, but now that she was no longer living with him, he couldn't help but miss the incessant pestering and her obsession with him that used to drive him up the wall. And as for Armin, Eren hadn't seen the blonde in weeks. Armin was forever busy studying, and Eren often joked that Armin didn't have to study nearly half as much as he let on and he was just using his studies as an excuse to avoid Eren.

"Your avoidance skills have improved, Armin," Eren said with a teasing smile.

Armin had learnt to play Eren's games; they were innocent and would end much quicker if the brunette didn't have to fish for reactions. So the blonde simply smiled deviously and replied to Eren, saying, "I took some notes from when you and Mikasa still lived under the same roof."

The brunette's jaw dropped and his eyes shot wide before he whined, "Armin!"

Armin threw his head back and laughed curtly before taking an unusually large sip of his _beer_. The last time Eren saw Armin, the blonde was still drinking 'pink-drinks' – cocktails and coolers and all those kinds of girly things. Now, Armin was drinking beer with Eren and Mikasa, swallowing it manfully and without flinching. In addition to that, Armin's face seemed to have filled out with more masculine features; a slightly more pronounced jawline, and more defined cheekbones. And he was definitely taller.

Eren smiled at the realization that his little blonde friend was becoming a man.

"When are you writing again?" Armin asked.

Eren suddenly took a great interest in his beer, turning it over in his hand, studying the text on the label as guilt flooded his eyes. After a few seconds, he mumbled something and took the last sip of his beer before jumping to his feet, announcing that he would pay for the next round.

But before he could leave, Mikasa's death-grip clamped down on his wrist. Yes, he missed her incessant pestering, but not enough to want it back in his life.

"What, Mikasa?"

"Armin asked you a question."

Eren scowled and looked at Armin with a pleading expression, which was met with Armin's raised brows. The blonde clearly expected an answer. Eren groaned and threw himself back into his seat, dejectedly glancing up at Armin while wondering what medical school had done to his best friend to turn the blonde into such a traitor.

"Tomorrow."

"What!" Armin and Mikasa cried out together. Mikasa continued, "Why didn't you tell me, Eren? We could've done this another time!"

"'Cause you know how little free time Armin gets," Eren mumbled, dropping his head and missing the guilty look on Armin's face. "I miss him and didn't know when I'd see him again…"

"That's no excuse, Eren!" Mikasa scolded. "You can only fail two tests and you know that includes flight tests as well! You need to leave room for error."

Eren groaned. He didn't need to be reminded of that. He was consciously aware that if he failed anything once, he'd receive a warning. Twice, and he would be brought before a panel to reassess his ability to continue the cadet program. If the panel decided that he could no longer perform to their standards, he would be kicked out of the program and most likely be made to pay back every single cent that Wings Aviation had spent on him. He shudder at the thought of how much that could be.

"I'm fine," Eren lied. "Reiner helped me with the engine stuff…everything else is pretty straightforward…"

"After this, we're done," Mikasa said.

"Mikasa, no!" Eren whined. "We just got here! Let's have a couple more, at least."

"No, Eren."

"Armin, back me up here!"

Armin sighed. "Mikasa has a point, Eren."

Eren stared at Armin in shock. This was not the guy Eren had always known; his right-hand man, the boy that would stand beside Eren no matter what. But that wasn't what had Eren's heart clenching as the shock turned to hurt and then to anger. It was the realisation that Armin wouldn't fight for him, that Armin was content with just these few minutes together, content with parting after one drink for who-knows how long again. It was as if Armin didn't want to be around him.

"What the hell!" He turned to Mikasa then, his anger flaring up red-hot. "Why are you doing this to me again, Mikasa? We spoke about this before! I'm not a kid! I don't need to be in bed by seven on a school night! I know I'm writing tomorrow so of course I'm not gonna get wasted like an idiot! I'm not an idiot so stop taking me for one!" He turned to Armin then and spoke angrily, but much softer. "And you…why are you so eager to get away from me? I came to see you even though I'm writing tomorrow, Armin. Do you know what kind of a sacrifice that is? Screw you guys. I'm out."

With that, Eren jumped up from his seat and marched off, ignoring the protests from his friends, which was easy to do because of the loud music and chatter all around. He was thankful that it was so crowded already, which would make it easy to lose the pair. Although it would only be a matter of time before Mikasa found him, Eren decided to make the most of the few minutes he'd have alone and dashed to the bar furthest from where he had been sitting with his friends. He bought a beer and made his way to a large table that only had a blonde girl as its sole occupant.

"Sorry, do you mind if I sit here?" Eren asked.

The girl looked up, her disinterested blue eyes dead for just a second before recognition flashed in them. She eyed Eren for just a second before the teen recognized her as well. She was a girl he'd gone to school with, a quiet and withdrawn girl that never had any friends except for Reiner and another tall, dark-haired guy. Eren remembered one very important thing about the girl: she was quiet and reserved, but she was also the country's MMA fighting champion in her age group.

"An-Annie?" Eren tested, not quite sure of her name. She nodded stiffly. "Oh, hey. What's up?"

"Nothing."

Just then, a pair of large hands landed on Eren's shoulders, grabbing him roughly and giving him a tight squeeze before a booming deep voice growled right into Eren's ear. "Stealing my girlfriend, punk?"

Eren all but jumped ten feet away from the man, whirling around, fully ready to explain, himself or defend himself, when he saw a raucously laughing blonde that he instantly recognized. Eren hissed in irritation and took a large gulp of his beer.

"Jesus, Reiner, don't do shit like that!" Eren growled, coming back to the table to take a seat beside Reiner.

"How you, Jaeger-boy?" Reiner called. He handed Annie an unidentifiable drink before settling with his own unidentifiable beverage. "Given up on the engines yet?"

"Completely," Eren admitted. "I'm writing tomorrow so I'll just wing it. It is multiple choice after all, so how bad can it be?"

* * *

><p>Pretty bad, actually. Eren stared at the computer screen before him with what had to be the worst hangover of his short life as a drinker. To say his head was being split open by a nine-inch nail being hammered right into the middle of his skull by a ten-pound hammer would be a colossal understatement. The teen could hardly keep his eyes open due to the sun's mere existence, never mind look at the bright white computer screen long enough to actually read the tiny words written on the screen.<p>

Why were the words so tiny? Wasn't there a zoom button somewhere here? He was about to search for one when he remembered the eyesight requirements for pilots…there wouldn't be a zoom button. He was supposed to be able to read all the words on the screen, as any pilot should be. With a groan, Eren tried to read question one again for the umpteenth time, hoping that this time he would understand the black gibberish on the screen. At least he recognized that it was in English.

As Eren stared at the screen lifelessly, clicking whatever answer he thought would be appropriate based on reading only half of each question, the words he'd yelled at Mikasa the night before replayed in his mind agonizingly loudly. _Of course I'm not gonna get wasted like an idiot_. Famous last words. Wasn't he always the one that ended up the drunkest despite always being the one adamant on drinking the least? How did this happen _again_? He swore he'd only have three beers and get home before ten. In the end, he'd drunk too much to even stand and ended up being driven home at three in the morning.

Reiner.

What a _wonderful_ influence that guy was. Even after Eren had run out of money, the beers and shots kept flowing as the ox-livered, brawny blonde made sure that they would have a night they would never forget…or in Eren's case, never remember. The last ting Eren remembered was pretending to leave with Mikasa and Armin, circling the block and then coming right back to The Garrison to continue his night with Reiner and Annie.

Now, here he sat, in an online examination center at the aviation authority head office, unable to distinguish two consecutive words because everything was such a bright blur. If it weren't for his sheer determination, and his pride, Eren would've simply called in sick and faked food poisoning to attain a doctor's note and then rescheduled the exam. He knew he wasn't ready for this exam in the first place, yet he still insisted on taking it in what was a barely-human state.

It had been the longest, most agonizing hour and a half of his entire life. Eren fought the constant urge to vomit and fall asleep, and not necessarily in that order, and could only hope to god that he didn't smell like a walking brewery. He skimmed through every question and ended up choosing his answers randomly for most of them, especially when the diagrams of various strokes of the piston appeared on the screen.

How he'd made it through the ninety minutes without expelling his stomach contents all over the floor and himself, he would never know. It was his sheer determination, and the grace of whatever force insisted the teen at least keep his dignity if not his sobriety. But as soon as the timer ran down and he submitted his exam, the nausea finally got the best of him.

With a speed he'd last used when playing sport in high school, Eren jumped from his seat and dashed to the nearest bathroom, which was thankfully just across the hall form the online examination center. He slammed a cubicle door shut and immediately dropped to his knees with his head in the toilet, barely settling before his entire body convulsed as he started to retch. He emptied his stomach of the good litre of coffee he must've drunk since he woke up, and very soon there was nothing else to expel. The dry-heaving was painful, bringing tears to the teen's eyes as he desperately tried to control himself. Amidst his pain and discomfort, he felt angry that his body simply wouldn't take the hint and just stop trying to vomit. It was like his body had become a rebellious entity fixated on torturing him.

Eventually, the dry-heaving ceased and Eren pulled himself together enough to freshen up. As he washed up, he was thankful that the bathroom had stayed empty during his disgusting episode. His head was still pounding and his body still felt sore and sluggish, but after spewing the brunette felt exponentially better. Eren was confident that now he'd at least be able to get himself home without needing to stop at the side of the road to vomit.

Just as he turned to the hand dryer, a man entered the bathroom in a fury. He was short and well-dressed, with a neat undercut and feathery black bangs hanging slightly over his eyes, parted in the middle. His stormy grey eyes looked up to meet Eren's, and upon recognition, both men froze.

It was the same man from safety evening, the man Eren had never seen before. There was no doubt about it, because Eren swore he'd be able to recognize those grey eyes and that intense glare anywhere. The boy had not thought of the man since their night of awkward eye contact, but now that he saw the man before him, Eren remembered the intrigue he felt. It was what had led the boy's eyes to follow the man all night, until the man sped off in his black SUV with the urgency of an ambulance on call.

"Are you gonna get out of my way or what, brat?" the man hissed, his voice deep and smooth and…familiar?

It was the first time Eren had heard the man speak, yet he felt like he had heard this man's voice a million times. He had never met the man before, yet he felt like he knew this man. There was a familiarity about this man that Eren couldn't place, and because his brain was still fogged-over by alcohol, he couldn't even formulate the words to ask.

"Tch." The man simply brushed passed Eren and made his way to the urinal.

Taking that as his cue to leave, Eren dashed out of the bathroom to collect a printout of his exam results so he could hurry home. He felt better now, but he knew exactly how his hangovers played out: the strength of the sickness varied throughout the day, giving him moments where he felt completely fine as well as moments where he felt like his Medulla Oblongata couldn't even keep his heart beating. Of course, fate wouldn't be so kind, and Eren had run into the man who had made, and could easily break, his career as a pilot.

* * *

><p>As if his week couldn't get any worse, Levi had gotten a belated reminder that his currency fees were due on his license. Why no one had cared to notify him in advance was beyond him, and after giving every person responsible a good, hard chewing out, the irritated businessman headed straight for the aviation authority head office to pay his fees lest he spend the weekend without a valid license. Given the way the week had played out, a weekend without his license would be the death of him.<p>

Of all the things that could've happened at the head office, he had to bump into the one brat he couldn't stop thinking about since their first encounter only days ago. As soon as their eyes met, Levi froze, first thinking he'd fabricated the brat's existence because of his incessant obsessing over the brunette. But the faint smell of beer wafting form the kid made it painfully obvious that this was not a figment of his imagination. Even so, the raven was unable to react, and simply stood and stared into those bright green eyes that were now devoid of the life and confidence he'd seen just days ago.

After using the facilities and freshening up, Levi found himself wondering what could've happened that made the brat look so dead. Did he go through a break-up or some other stress that had made him take to the bottle? Or was the brat just tired from studying…that was possible since he was likely here to write an exam. Perhaps he was just being an irresponsible brat and had gotten so drunk that his hangover had stolen his basic brain function.

That seemed like the most logical explanation.

With a click of his tongue, Levi once again cursed himself for thinking so intently about the stranger. He'd come here in a foul mood and now his grumpiness had been disarmed by his own curiosity, which irritated the man to no end. His obsessing over the gorgeous teen would be the death of him, and he knew he had to get the boy out of his head…and fast. He was not an easily intrigued man, and a much less easily infatuated one, but once he saw something he liked, he became obsessed with it until he got it.

And he always got what he wanted.

Walking out of the bathroom, Levi abruptly stopped when he saw a very familiar figure standing a few meters from the bathroom. The man may have had his back turned to Levi, but Levi could recognize those broad shoulders, that proud stature and the neat, blonde undercut of his oldest friend from miles away. But it wasn't the shock of seeing Erwin Smith on these premises that halted the raven – on the contrary, as a man in aviation, Levi expected Erwin Smith to frequent this building. It was who Erwin was with, and how he was talking to this person and laughing as if they had known each other for years.

It was none other than that brunette brat.

Levi watched them curiously, barely able to resist the urge to eavesdrop on their conversation as Erwin laughed heartily and often touched the brunette on his arm. Touched him? Levi growled at the thought of Erwin's hands on that brat.

_What the fuck?_

Why was he feeling so jealous and so possessive? He didn't even know the brat. Maybe he was feeling jealous and possessive of Erwin? Levi pondered this for just a second before nearly gagging at the thought of Erwin's naked body. Hell no. They had been nothing more than friends for years, and that was never going to change. But then that meant that he really was feeling these things for the brat. The brat that had irritated yet intrigued him, the brat whom he didn't know but already hated, the brat that had infiltrated his mind, the brat he now wanted to own.

"Damn it, Levi," he hissed under his breath, before turning and stalking off to find where he had to pay his currency fees.

It had been years since Levi last felt this desire so strongly: the desire to claim someone as his own, to completely possess them, make them his. He never thought he'd feel it ever again after…_her_…since that relationship had left him completely crippled. Yet here he was, feeling these things all over again, only stronger. He may hate the kid, but he wanted that kid to be his. There was no denying it. Levi knew he had to stay away…far, far away.

"You've been scarce, Levi," a voice said, interrupting Levi's train of thoughts.

He recognized the voice instantly, therefore instead of retaliate, he simply sighed and nodded his head. Erwin was right, the two of them hadn't seen each other let alone spent time together in what had to be months. Their careers were both busy ones, and Levi was a notorious loner.

"I never thought I'd see you here of all places," Erwin continued.

"You seem to forget that I'm a licensed pilot," Levi retorted, "I have responsibilities."

Erwin chuckled quietly. "Indeed you do."

They arrived at the office where currency fees were to be paid, and Levi groaned internally at the length of the line. He couldn't believe there were so many people here in the middle of the day, as if none of them had jobs to do.

"Would you like some company?" Erwin asked, sensing his friend's unease.

"I would like someone to do this shit for me," Levi snapped.

Once again, Erwin chuckled. Unlike most, Erwin was never perturbed by Levi's aggression or by his dark demeanour. He had known Levi since school, and had seen Levi at his absolute worst, therefore the man knew Levi was relatively harmless now.

"How are things at Colossus?" Erwin tried to spark up some small talk.

"Don't even ask." Levi was not going to elaborate further, but one more look at the queue and the knowledge that Erwin wasn't going anywhere prompted the raven to continue. "Someone has been stealing designs and selling them to other companies. The investigation has been running for four fucking months and no one made any progress. Then I show up to work yesterday and weeded out the traitorous fucker in less than twenty-four hours."

"Ah!" Erwin smiled. "As expected of the great Mr Ackerman."

"Tch."

The two stood in comfortable silence as the queue slowly shuffled forward. Levi once again found his mind wondering to the brunette teen he'd seen talking with Erwin. How would such a young kid know Erwin? Erwin was an adult, probably twice that brat's age, and aside from Erwin's career being in aviation, the two had nothing in common. Yet they were speaking as if they knew each other personally.

His curiosity got the better of him, and before he could stop himself, he'd asked, "How do you know that brat?"

Erwin eyed Levi incredulously for a second. "I'm a cadet recruiter, I know many 'brats'. You're going to have to be more specific."

_Damn you_, Levi thought. His eyes narrowed to dangerous slits as he eyed Erwin, who seemed completely oblivious to Levi's darkening mood. Levi knew well that Erwin knew exactly who he was talking about, but the sadistic blonde wanted to hear his friend say it.

"The brunette brat you were just talking to like he's an old butt-buddy," Levi hissed.

Erwin smiled. Oh he knew what it meant when Levi got like this. He'd seen it once, and thought he'd never see if again. There was something about that boy that had caught Levi's attention, and Erwin of all people knew what that meant.

"He's Eren Jaeger," Erwin said, pride evident in his voice. "He's one of our cadets at Karanese Central. He's a gifted and hard-working young man. Great kid…I look forward to him joining the airline one day."

"I didn't know you knew your cadets so _intimately_," Levi hissed.

"Is that jealousy I sense, Mr Ackerman?" Erwin teased, which earned him a hard glare. If they weren't in public, he would've gotten much more than that. He chuckled at Levi's annoyance and continued to speak. "I met Eren in a unique way. Long story short, he sent his application directly to me and since he got accepted into the cadet program, I've taken him under my wing."

"Uh-huh."

"You seem quite interested in him. Have you seen him somewhere before?"

Levi immediately turned away from Erwin and glared darkly ahead. Trust Erwin to see right through him, and curse Erwin for that gift. He couldn't deny the accusation, but he didn't want to admit it just yet. The teen was nothing than a disrespectful, annoying, egotistical punk who thinks the sun shines out of his ass and treats the world accordingly. An obnoxious, irritating, loud brat with wild yet honest green eyes, a dazzling, breath-taking smile and tanned skin that looked as smooth as silk…

Erwin smiled. "He's a good kid. You'll definitely like him _when_ you get to know him. Oh, and he's nineteen, which makes him legal…"

"Fuck off, Smith"

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for reading!<br>**


	3. Chapter 3: MAYDAY

**A/N: Good greetings my friends. Shit's about to get real don't know if I should put PLANE CRASH as a trigger warning but I guess there are people out there with issues relating to that so there it is.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Attack on Titan, the characters or any other brands and things mentioned.**

* * *

><p>The week had finally ended and Eren was convinced that not a single person could possibly be more grateful than he was. He'd managed to pass his exam on the grace of whatever great being resided over humanity, and said being extended Eren extra grace when the severely hung-over teen bumped into the cadet recruiter right after a particularly nasty episode in the bathroom. And speaking of the bathroom…<p>

Who was that man in the bathroom? Eren knew he had seen the man at the safety meeting and therefore shouldn't be too surprised to have seen him at the aviation authority head office, but the man's presence was still disconcerting. The way he looked at Eren as if he were just as surprised stuck in Eren's mind; those stormy eyes, dark and intensely focused on him and him alone. Why? And his voice…the man's silky voice was painfully familiar, as if Eren had heard it a million times or more.

But he knew that he didn't know this man from a bar of soap.

Nevertheless, the teen pushed it all to the back of his mind in favor of resting. After spending the whole of Friday sleeping, Eren was awake at four on Saturday morning, ready and eager to get airborne. He knew Marco would have done the flight planning, but Eren did his own in an attempt to kill time. The brunette didn't get much further than drawing the route on his maps and writing the basic information such as leg distances, altitudes and headings. It was suddenly five and he quickly got dressed, throwing on a pair of faded black jeans and a dark grey V-neck shirt with black slip on shoes.

Marco was in his uniform, looking incredibly smart in the navy blue trousers, uniform shirt complete with epaulets and his wings badge, and unnaturally shiny black leather shoes. The way his uniform clung to his body made it look like every item was tailored, while it was just because Marco's body was superbly built to fit into the uniform. He stood with a confident stance that didn't suit him at all as he waited for the bowser to fill the tanks of the Cessna 172 that the boys would be using for their day trip to the coast.

While Marco sorted out the fuel bay paperwork, Eren prepared the cabin for the flight. He took out all the navigation logs and maps the boys would need, plugging in both his and Marco's headsets and stowing away all items that they wouldn't need. He placed his bag within reach since it had snacks in it; since the flight was four hours, Eren knew that they – or at least he – would get hungry at some point.

"All right," Marco said as he jumped into his seat. He shut the door and secured the harness around his body, taking a glance at his wristwatch once he was settled. "Fifteen minutes late but what's aviation without a delay?"

"Every pilot has a doctorate in waiting," Eren mused. "It's the unspoken foundation for learning to fly."

Marco laughed and strapped his kneeboard to his thigh, Eren following suit. As Marco filled in the flight folio to record the fuel uplift, Eren handed Marco his checklist and was about to start configuring the aircraft for start-up when his eyes caught sight of a helicopter's rotors slowly laboring to life dead ahead.

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Eren groaned. He would've thrown his hands up in the air in pure exasperation, but the tiny cabin wouldn't allow him that sort of freedom.

Marco lifted his head and looked across the taxiway to see what could've possibly offended Eren at this early hour, and the dark-haired man caught sight of a helicopter starting up. But it wasn't just any helicopter – it was a shiny, Ferrari-red Robinson with a large yellow Ferrari sticker at the rear of its fuselage and the all-too-familiar registration markings LAH. Marco, just like Eren, knew then and there who it was.

"Is that your best friend?" Marco teased.

With an irritated scowl, Eren tucked his chin against his neck and deepened his voice before speaking in what he thought was a fairly accurate imitation of the pilot, saying, "Uh, good-day Karanese Tower, this is Lima Alpha Hotel and I'm a giant dick just wanting to fuck up everyone's day real quick, request lift-off from helipad alpha."

Marco laughed much too loudly at his fuming friend while Eren wondered just how much damage a bullet would do if it hit the rapidly spinning rotors. Surely it would ensure that the helicopter would be grounded, right?

"Well, let's hurry up before that dick gets in the air and fucks up our flight," Eren hissed, grabbing his own checklist to help Marco start-up.

Their flight did get, as Eren so eloquently put it, 'fucked up', but it wasn't at all due to the offending helicopter at all. Instead, it was the sudden appearance of a massive storm cell that had somehow not appeared on the forecast that Marco had obtained just hours before. They weren't even halfway to the coast when the threatening black clouds seemed to appear out of nowhere, clearly warding off any plane that wished to proceed in that direction.

"I think we should turn around," Eren said, worry clear on his face.

Everyone knows just how dangerous storms are. They can bring down a Boeing weighing hundreds of tons…what they could do to a Cessna weighing less than an SUV is something no pilot wants to spend much time pondering.

And Wednesday's safety meeting drove the point home: stay the hell away from any black clouds. Storms kill. Period.

"Agreed," Marco said. "Would you like to fly us back?"

"Sure."

Eren assumed command of the aircraft, a boyish grin spreading on his face despite the fact that he'd flown hundreds of times already. Marco smiled at his younger friend's enthusiasm, and while Eren turned the aircraft around, Marco broadcast their intentions on the radio before whipping out his phone to text Jean to say they had to turn around due to bad weather.

All was all going well and the boys were making good progress back to Karanese, until Marco looked outside his window. His face paled at he saw: the clouds seemed to be upon them, shooting brilliant flashes of lightning from cloud to cloud, and from cloud to ground. As if reiterating what Marco was seeing, the plane suddenly started to bump around in the turbulent air – they were much closer to the storm cell than they'd first anticipated.

"The weather really isn't looking good…" Marco whispered.

Even when whispering, Marco's voice was crystal clear in Eren's headset. The plane shuddered and shook as the winds became increasingly violent in a frighteningly short amount of time. Eren realized then what Marco had realized moments ago – the storm was upon them.

"Shit," Eren hissed. He grabbed his map and chucked it at Marco. "Where are we now?"

"Standby," Marco said. He looked between the map and the navigation log, making a quick calculation on his phone before drawing a circle no bigger than his thumb on the map. "Here."

Eren grabbed the map from Marco in a way that would've been downright rude in any other situation. But with the Cessna becoming increasingly less stable as the winds grew stronger around the small aircraft, Eren couldn't afford the luxury of taking his hands off the controls for even a second.

"Take control, Marco,"

"I have control."

With that, Eren brought the map to his face and began to study it. As he looked at their position, in the middle of nowhere, he became acutely aware of the hammering of his heart in his chest. The boy swallowed hard and lifted the boom from his mouth so he could breathe deeply in an attempt to calm himself down. He wasn't scared…yet. He was, however, not oblivious to the danger they were currently in. With no way to outrun the storm, he knew they had to get the aircraft to the ground as quickly as possible to wait out the storm.

After looking at the map for what felt like hours, Eren eventually saw a little airfield symbol just east of their track. He squinted as he tried to read the name, but quickly gave up; it was an unpronounceable name and the airfield was most likely nothing more than a godforsaken little strip in the middle of nowhere. However, it was the closest airfield by a long shot, and the storm was closing in from the south-west, so heading east would give them a little more time. Not much, but hopefully enough.

Besides, a godforsaken little strip in the middle of nowhere was better than nothing at all.

"Got one!" Eren exclaimed, handing the map back to Marco with his thumb marking the airfield he'd selected.

"You have control," Marco announced before taking the map from Eren.

"I have control," Eren confirmed. He held the plane as stable as he could while Marco studied the map. From the corner of his eye, he could see Marco frowning in what could only be concern as he noted the lack of information regarding the airfield. "It's asphalt…that's all that matters now."

Eren knew Marco was concerned with the length of the runway…or rather, the lack thereof.

"Okay…let's give it a shot." Marco immediately got to work replotting their route form their current position to the airfield. In less than three minutes, he called out the new heading to fly, and Eren immediately complied.

By now, Eren could hear the wind around the aircraft. The Cessna was being tossed around violently by the wind, and Eren's palms were sweaty as he held the control column in a white-knuckled grip, fighting to keep the aircraft under control. The sound of the thunder rumbling was louder than the sound of the engine laboring as Eren powered on at full throttle, which was terrifying because the Cessna at full throttle was already terribly noisy.

The teen's heart was no longer hammering in his chest, but trying to pound its way right out of his body. Eren clenched and unclenched his jaw repeatedly in a vain effort to calm himself down. No matter how hard he tried, the brunette couldn't control the undiluted fear coursing through his body, polluting his blood with adrenaline and intoxicating his mind with stress. The sweat on his brow was just one indication that Eren was losing his composure, but was fighting his damn hardest to be unafraid.

"Do you want me to fly?" Marco asked.

Eren was about to take Marco up on his offer, but when he saw the fear in his friend's eyes he immediately declined. Marco may have been acting brave as well, but his eyes betrayed him; he was just as scared as Eren, just as aware of how dire their situation had become. His knuckles were white from clenching his fists tightly, hands planted firmly on his thighs as he sat by helplessly and watched Eren struggle against increasingly turbulent conditions.

"How long to run before the airfield?" Eren asked in a desperate attempt to keep Marco occupied.

"Fifteen miles," Marco said. He looked out of his window then and winced – the storm was on top of them, and then he knew that it was only a matter of seconds before the heavens split wide open.

"Leave it to me!" Eren called out, his voice strong and confident despite his crippling fear.

His sheer determination was all that held Eren's sanity intact, keeping his head in the game. He may have been trembling with fear and shaking from sheer exertion, but the brunette kept fighting to keep his composure in the face of the grim situation, even if only to put his friend at ease. It was a life-threatening situation, but Eren would not allow his fear to control him, because he knew that fear caused people to make errors, and errors in critical moments lead to fatalities…

_Now's not the time to think about that!_ Eren hissed, dispelling all negativity. _I can do this. I have this under control. I can do this. I've got this. I've got this._

He chanted the mantra over and over again in his mind, convincing himself that despite the odds, they would come out on top. Both he and Marco may not have the greatest amount of experience, but they were both qualified and well-trained pilots, and if anything, the two of them together would be able to get the plane safely on the ground. Fifteen miles wasn't too far…they could make it. No, they would make it, no matter what.

_I'm not dying today_, Eren thought, _and neither are you, Marco!_

Eren listened as Marco broadcast their intentions over the radio, but he wasn't convinced that anyone was listening. He knew Marco's words were falling on deaf ears, but he stayed silent, concentrating on flying the plane. Darkness had enveloped them and they could see lightning shooting from the clouds all around him, the winds tossing the aircraft around like an old rag doll. The brunette had to concentrate to keep the plane stable in the deteriorating conditions, and offered up a silent prayer to whoever was listening that they wouldn't get struck by lightning in the air.

Marco sat still, silent. He didn't want to tell Eren, but he'd noticed their ground speed had dropped to below sixty knots. Suddenly those fifteen miles felt more like forty, and Marco seriously started fearing for his life. He trusted Eren explicitly, knowing that they had received the same training, and Eren was not more than half a dozen hours less experienced than himself, at most. But even given that, they still had much less than one hundred hours in command between the two of them, and when thinking about that figure, the odds didn't seem to be in their favor…

"Distance?" Eren asked in a strained voice.

His composure was slipping. His hands were locked on the control column in a death grip and his eyes stared dead ahead, all but ignoring his instruments as he fought the aircraft. His teeth were clenched and every single muscle in his body was tensed and ready for action. Ready to die.

"Five miles!" Marco called out. "We should be visual any minute now! Commence descent."

"Copy!" Eren replied. "Reduce throttle just a bit…keep it high but make sure I don't red-line!"

"Copy! I'll watch the airspeed too!"

That was perfect. Eren almost smiled as Marco's words reminded him that he wasn't the only pilot on board, that he was not going through this alone. With Marco watching the instruments, Eren could concentrate on getting them to the ground safely. The burden that had been lifted from his shoulders was immense, and Eren felt a small wave of relief wash over him.

"Watch everything for me," Eren ordered.

Marco acknowledged the command before immediately crying out, "Field in sight! Eleven o' clock!"

Eren's head snapped in that direction but he saw nothing. The only thing the brunette saw were the pendulous clouds and the brilliant flashes of lightning being thrown out of them. Despite this, he turned the aircraft in that direction, completely trusting his friend and fellow pilot. They had no time to waste, and as long as one of them had the field in sight, the landing was possible.

Just then, it started raining. Not a gentle trickling as a prelude to the storm, but a sudden downpour that slammed the aircraft so hard they lost a couple hundred feet of altitude. Eren's visibility dropped significantly in that moment, and as he was about to curse the heavens, he caught sight of the airfield. His relief was short-lived when he noted the orientation of the runway.

They were perpendicular to the runway. They still had to orientate themselves correctly.

_Shit!_ Eren hissed as he turned the aircraft to fly parallel to the runway for the downwind leg, keeping his eye on the near-invisible strip of asphalt so well-camouflaged in the darkness of the storm.

Fear erupted wildly in Eren then. His heart was pounding so hard in his throat that he thought he would vomit the organ right out at any second. His hands were trembling so hard that he wasn't even sure that he was able to keep the aircraft stable any longer. He was panting hard as and his shirt was drenched with sweat, his skin on fire from the sheer volume of adrenaline poisoning his body.

Suddenly, Eren wished he had stayed home. For the first time in his life, he regretted boarding an aircraft. Approaching his death, Eren had to fight the urge to cry as the gravity of the situation crashed down on him, showing the teen the cruel reality: they were about to execute an emergency landing. A crash landing. They were going down, and there was nothing they could do about it. This could be the last few minutes of both their lives, and that was when Eren realized he hadn't done one damn thing in his life to leave a legacy.

_Focus, Eren! Don't think about that now! Get this plane on the ground! Focus!_

"Altitude?" Eren demanded, forcing himself to abandon his depressing thoughts.

"Four thousand one hundred!" Marco replied. "One thousand AGL!"

One thousand feet above ground level; the standard circuit altitude. Eren was at the right height, but only if their altimeter was calibrated correctly, which he knew it wasn't. They could be anything between three hundred feet above or below what they thought they were, and that was not a comforting thought.

"Airspeed?"

"One forty."

"Shit!"

He was too fast, way too fast. He was flying at double the speed he was supposed to be flying at because of his desperate attempt to reach the airfield. Reach the airfield…that was the prime objective. Fuck the speed! Gritting his teeth and tightening his grip on the control column, Eren began to turn downwind in preparation for landing. If he kept up this speed, they could be on the ground in less than a minute.

"I'm gunning it!" he announced as he commenced his turn. "We'll worry about speed wh…FUCK!"

A gust of wind slammed into the Cessna's tiny frame then, slapping the airframe as if it were nothing more consequential than a gnat. The wings rocked violently and the left wing lifted dangerously high, nearly inverting the plane as the bank angle came dangerously close to exceeding ninety degrees.

"Reduce throttle!" Eren cried out desperately as he swung the control column to the left and fully depressed the left rudder in a desperate attempt to keep the plane from flipping over.

Marco was quick to comply and immediately pulled the throttle lever back, slowing the aircraft as Eren fought to stabilize it. He kept his eyes glued to the altimeter nervously as he watched the needle wind backwards at an alarming rate, his hands twitching with the need to pull the control column back to stop losing altitude. And just when he nearly grabbed the control column, Eren won his brief battle with Mother Nature.

The aircraft may have been under control, but Eren had completely lost it.

He no longer had airfield in sight and the brunette stared dead ahead into the dark rain with his eyes wide with fear, catatonic. His heart was pounding so hard it had become painful, just as his lungs had started to burn from hyperventilating. He was shaking uncontrollably now...his composure was long gone. Fear had consumed the brunette entirely, at the worst possible moment, with only three hundred feet between him and the ground., and no matter how hard Marco screamed, Eren could hear nothing but the rasping of his last breaths.

"Eren!" Marco cried out. "Eren!"

Eren didn't respond. He couldn't. All he could do was watch as the ground came towards them as a frightening speed, the terrain clear in his mind despite the heavy downpour obstructing his vision. The teen watched with green eyes wide as his death came at him one hundred and forty knots, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. A severe roll of nausea consumed him as they crossed the threshold of the unlit runway, the sound of the engine roaring, the thunder exploding and the rain pounding down on the aluminum airframe all but lost to the sound of his heart hammering in his ears.

"Brace!"

Immediately after the frantic yelling, he felt was the wheels of the Cessna slamming into the ground with a force that should've broken them clean off. His heart froze as they hurtled down the runway at a terrifying speed, the wind abusing the body of the aircraft in an evil attempt to throw the plane off the runway. It all seemed mostly controlled even to Eren's catatonic mind, but the teen waited with bated breath for death to come.

And then the aircraft hit something.

With an ear-splitting crack, the aircraft suddenly lost most of its momentum and begun to spin wildly out of control, leaving the runway and careening off to the side. The chilling sound of metal crumpling under pressure and the labored coughing of a machine dying blocked out all thoughts as a piercing pain smacked Eren dead in the face, waking him from his fear-induced coma as his body got tossed about like a lifeless corpse in the tiny cabin of the disintegrating Cessna.

And then, nothing. All motion suddenly ceased. Suddenly, there was no more metal crunching, no more coughing engine, no more terrified screaming. Everything was eerily silent save for the beating of the rain and hail on the aluminum fuselage. Time stood still as the heavens unleashed its wrath.

Eren's eyes opened then, but he saw nothing. Darkness enveloped him in its cold embrace, the ringing in his ears deafening him to the constant pounding on the fuselage. Even his heart was completely silenced, dead. The smell of blood overwhelmed him, pulling him from his slumber with its metallic clutches delicately holding him. Blinking furiously, Eren took the hand that pulled him from the darkness, only to be met with more darkness. He blinked again and again, until he realized it wasn't the darkness around him that kept him blind, but rather the darkness clinging to him.

He weakly lifted his hand then, rubbing his soaking wet eyes. Had he been crying? Knowing he was just second away from death, of course he'd cry. He held his hand away from his now unobstructed eyes to see his wasted tears and stared in confusion at the crimson liquid smudged on his fingers. He turned his hand over, watching it drip to the ground as he pondered the impossibility of his tears being red. How scared was he that he'd actually cried blood? Or was this simply a delusion, and he had already died?

Eren focused his eyes beyond his hand, squinting as his vision blurred until he forced his eyes to focus on whatever it was in front of him. It was a U-shaped thing, some sort of steering wheel.

_Car?_

He looked closer at the badge in the middle of the U-shaped steering wheel. It was blue and red with silver writing across it that read…

_C-Ces…Cessna?_

Eren's back shot ramrod straight as the realization crashed upon him. He wasn't in a car, and he hadn't been crying. He'd just survived an airplane crash, and he was bleeding from his head. Suddenly, Eren couldn't be more alert as his mind quickly sifted through the events that led him to this point. But more importantly, why was he in the right hand seat? If he was in the right-hand seat then that meant that he wasn't the pilot in command. That could only mean…

"Marco!" Eren breathed, whipping his head to the left.

What he saw made his blood run cold. Marco was slumped over in his seat, eyes closed and jaw hanging slack, blood streaming down his nose and dripping onto the seat between his legs. His chest was not rising and falling as it should be. The dark-haired man was completely motionless.

"MARCO!"

Eren shot an arm towards Marco, bloody fingers desperately pressing all over Marco's neck in a frantic search for a pulse. "Oh god, oh god, oh god…" Eren mumbled as his tears began to fall, his search coming up empty. "Please don't be dead, Marco, please, please…"

Eren couldn't find a pulse.

Marco's heart wasn't beating.

Tears blurred Eren's vision as he threw himself back into his own seat and slumped down, the reality of the situation grim. The final piece of the puzzle clicked into place and Eren began to wail loudly and angrily as hatred, self-loathing bubbled up from the deepest part of his core. There was no denying that this was his fault; he was the pilot in command and he had lost his composure at a critical moment, his weakness coming through at the worst possible moment. He froze up when he was supposed to be landing a plane. He swore only minutes ago that he would not die today, that he would get them to safety, that they would make it.

But he was weak. Because of this, he was unable to keep his silent promise. He was unable to keep it together, and because of that, Marco…

"FUCK!"

Eren hit his head back against the seat repeatedly as fresh, angry tears broke free, tears fueled by the realization that he was had failed as a pilot, as a friend. He'd failed as a person, and now because of him…

Wait.

Didn't Marco always carry an emergency radio?

Eren swung around in his seat, the motion so rapid that it tugged at his consciousness, and suddenly the teen was too weak to keep himself upright. He grit his teeth and hissed, forcing himself to stay awake through sheer willpower.

_No, not now! Not yet!_

With gritted teeth, Eren fought the dizziness and the pending unconsciousness as the blood continued to trickle down his face alongside his tears. Fighting the pain in his body and the unbearable throbbing of his head, Eren reached desperately for Marco's bag, blackness beginning to border his vision as he struggled harder and harder against the harness that held him strapped in place.

"Come…on…"

He could feel his strength slipping. It wouldn't be long now, but he had to get that radio. If he could at least contact someone, then they wouldn't be stuck here, alone, bleeding, dead and dying. More tears came. The blackness became clouding. Desperation had his heart beating faster and faster, making the blackness spread across his vision like a virus.

"Stop!" Eren choked out. "S-stop…cry…"

His fingers brushed against knobs then, fiddling as he desperately tried to grab the plastic object with his bloody, slippery fingers. The harder he tried, the further away it seemed, and the harder Eren cried. All he had to do was lift the radio to his mouth and tell whoever was listening that they had crashed…that they needed help…

But the blackness became overbearing, the weight of it all-consuming. The tears drowned him as his head began to drop, submitting to the pressure of the unconsciousness that beckoned to him to fall into her sweet embrace. One by one his bloody fingers slipped off the small life-saving emergency radio as breath by breath, Eren slipped into the warm comfort of a tranquil slumber.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading, I hope it wasn't completely unbearable haha.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4: WTF

**A/N: Thank you for continuing with this story!**

**Please enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan or any other brands or whatever may be mentioned in the story.**

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><p>Nineteen, huh? The information had tossed and turned over in Levi's mind for hours as he contemplated the legality of his latest obsession. The brat was legal, yes, but he was still terribly young, making the whole infatuation unacceptable by society's standards. But then again, when had Levi ever been bothered by what society deemed acceptable, and when had he ever cared what people thought of him?<p>

After an enjoyable flight to the one spa that he knew met his ridiculous standards of cleanliness, the raven had unfortunately found himself grounded after a rather violent storm had suddenly flared up over the interior. While it wasn't much of an issue financially – he simply hired a hangar on site and stowed his helicopter for the evening – the issue lay with the fact that he now had to spend a night at a lodge, in a room that countless filthy bodies had been in and most likely done unspeakable things in. After checking in, Levi knew that he wasn't going to get a second of sleep in the filth-infested room, and politely requested cleaning aids so he could at least make the environment liveable.

After an exhausting cleaning exercise – talk about defeating the purpose of coming to a spa – Levi turned his cell on for the first time in twenty-four hours. He stared at the device as it powered up, wondering why he had even bothered to switch it on; it's not like there was anyone in Karanese that would be expecting him back or even be expecting to hear from him over the weekend. His friends certainly wouldn't care about his whereabouts and he had no family, and certainly no lover, to notify either.

It seemed like a lonely existence to most, but Levi thrived in solitude.

After losing the last object of his dangerously obsessive infatuation, the man had been an absolute wreck, flirting with clinical insanity and being diagnosed with acute depression as he bordered on suicidal. Having been a private and closed-off person from a young age, he had eventually let his lover in after she had torn down the walls keeping him safe from the evils of the world. She had infiltrated every part of his mind, body and soul, and it wasn't long until his infatuation and obsession turned to love. When he loved her, he let her in deeper and deeper until she could read the man with barely a glance and could steer his thoughts and emotions as if she was trained in the art of mental manipulation. They were absolutely perfect together, and Levi had never been happier.

And then, she disappeared. Out of the blue, she upped and left without so much as a hint that anything was ever wrong.

Levi's world ended. His life very nearly did too.

His walls were rebuilt twice as high and his generally quiet and cold demeanor turned to an icy and furious one, making the man an absolute nightmare to even be near. He became angry and secluded, pushing everyone, even his closest friends, as far away from him as possible. He had vowed to never let another person come even close enough to him to know the city he was born in, even if his life were to depend on it. He vowed to keep every living human as far away from his hardened interior as long as his heart beats.

Yet here he sat, over a hundred miles from Karanese and obsessing over a nineteen-year old brat whose name he'd never have even learnt had his friend not been a cadet recruiter. Ever since he'd first laid eyes on the brunette named Eren Jaeger, he felt drawn to the boy. Regardless of how obnoxious, irritating and offensive he found the teen, he couldn't keep the boy out of his mind. At first, he thought that it was just because of the immense irritation he felt towards the brat, but when the thoughts of the boy persisted, Levi quickly recognized the dangerous truth: he was becoming obsessed with the teen.

It was exactly the same as with _her_.

Hell, he'd even dreamt of the brat…of making the boy _his own._

As much as he tried to control his thoughts and his growing desires, Levi knew that it was already too late. Once he fixated on something, it was impossible to steer his attention elsewhere. Once he wanted something, he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. It was already much too late, and he knew that he could no longer deny the fact that he'd already crossed the line, no matter how hard he tried to deny it.

There was no turning back now.

Levi had to have this boy.

Every fiber in his body screamed at him to take the boy and make the boy _his_. It was as if his very instincts were screaming that the boy was _born to be his_. Even if the boy crawled under his skin and pissed him off to no ends, he wanted the boy. After all, Levi lived for the passion of angry sex.

_What._

The raven snapped back to reality as the weight of what he'd been thinking crashed down on him and sobered his deteriorating trail of thought. From irritation, to hatred, to infatuation, to unwanted yet unavoidable obsession…and now he was thinking about fucking the brat? Hell no. It was all happening way too soon, way too fast. He couldn't have these sorts of fantasies, not when his emotions were controlling him so. Not now. Any time but now.

_Or not ever_, Levi chided, but his subconscious rolled its eyes at him.

He wanted the boy and he already knew he was going to claim the boy and have him, one way or another. It was inevitable.

With a sigh, Levi looked at his phone in a bid to at distract himself, at least momentarily. There were five unread messages on his phone, and the raven immediately knew who they were from. As much as he didn't want to read even a single one of the messages, he knew that he had the choice of either going through the barrage of what was likely to be irritating texts from a certain brunette friend of his that he dedicated his free time to avoiding, or suffer the depressing thoughts around the fact that he was losing himself to his dangerously obsessive nature once again.

He chose the lesser of two evils.

**_Hanji (17:06): Leeeevvvviiiii! I just ended my shift at KC and didn't hear you return. Are you okay?_**

**_Hanji (17:30): Did you divert because of the weather? Tell me, Levi! I just got home by the way!_**

**_Hanji (17:37): I'm worried about you, you know? That storm is pretty bad! You're not the only aircraft that didn't return. Just tell me where you are, please._**

**_Hanji (17:50): Okay not cool, Levi. I'm worrying my ass off. If you don't reply in ten minutes I'm sending search and rescue._**

**_Hanji (17:59): You're ignoring me you little shit! I called the lodge and they said you booked in. Why you no talk to me, Leevvviii?_**

_That's probably why, shitty four-eyes_, Levi thought, eyes zeroing in on the words 'little shit'. As much as he wanted to ignore Hanji's incessant pestering, he knew that the sooner he laid his phone down, the sooner his thoughts would return to the boy he didn't want to think about. With a sigh, Levi replied to all the messages with one text.

**_Levi (19:04): Calm down, four-eyes. I'm safe and will be back at KC tomorrow sometime. Don't wait up._**

Satisfied with his response, he put his phone down and was about to get himself comfortable for the evening when his phone buzzed.

**_Hanji (19:04): GREAT!_**

He rolled his eyes at the unnecessary reply and promptly turned off his phone before stripping down for bed. All he wanted to do was succumb to the unconsciousness of sleep so he would no longer be bothered by the thoughts of the boy that were beginning to multiply and turn inappropriate at an alarming rate. The man could only hope that he would have no dreams about the teen, but he wasn't convinced that he would even get that sort of peace.

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><p>It would've been a lazy Sunday morning much like any other, but there was not a single text on her phone from Eren. This fact in itself wasn't cause for immediate concern, but given the circumstances of the current situation, Eren's silence was definitely cause for alarm. The teen may not have been the most clingy person in the world – far from it in fact – but he always texted his sister when he landed. From the very first time he'd flown an aircraft, Eren had <em>never<em> not texted Mikasa the second he was able to after landing safely.

At first, Mikasa wondered if Eren could've simply forgotten, but just the thought of that in itself was ludicrous. Eren _never_ forgot to text her. It was a little ritual of theirs, just like it was a ritual between Eren and Armin for the brunette to send his best friend pictures of the ocean from the sky every single time he flew there. It was simply impossible that Eren, who valued his sister and Armin above most things in his life, would've simply forgotten to contact both of them after a flight to the coast.

Dread had filled Mikasa after finding out from Armin that Eren hadn't contacted him either. In light of the ferocious storm cell that tore through the country yesterday, Mikasa's dread was only growing. As much as she tried to convince herself that Eren was fine, the facts couldn't be ignored.

But she had no idea what to do or who to call, so she called the only aviation-related number she had on her phone: Karanese Central Airport control tower. Why she had that number on her phone, she would never know, but right now, that was her only hope.

"_Good morning, Karanese Central Airport control tower, Hanji speaking. How may I be of assistance?_"

"Uh, hello," Mikasa said, clearing her throat to rid her voice of its tremble. "You're speaking to Mikasa Ackerman. I need information regarding a flight that was supposed to land there yesterday. Is it possible that you can give me that information?"

"_Well, ma'am that does depend on what information you're looking for._"

"I just need to know if the aircraft arrived safely."

Mikasa closed her eyes and breathed out heavily as she said those words. She had never, in all the months that Eren had been flying and all the years he would still spend in the air, thought that she would have to speak those words. Just hearing them come from her mouth made her heart ache, as she thought to herself that if anything had happened to Eren, she would never be able to forgive herself.

"_Did the aircraft depart from Karanese Central Airport, ma'am? Also, I will need the aircraft registration or possibly the flight plan number to be able to track the aircraft._"

Mikasa snapped out of her depressive potential self-loathing as she realized she had none of the information that the lady was asking for. Yes, she could tell the lady that the aircraft had departed just after six in the morning, given the time Eren texted her before he'd left, but other than that she knew nothing. Eren never told her the finer details of his flights, such as which specific aircraft he was flying unless it was his favorite one. So that ruled out one of the aircraft. But he could've been flying any aircraft in what Mikasa even knew was a large fleet for a flight school. Mikasa wasn't even aware that flight plans had numbers.

"Uh, I don't know…"

"_Unfortunately I won't be able to be of any assistance then,_" the lady said in what sounded like a dejected tone. Mikasa was about to simply hand up when the lady continued. "But _I can inform you that two aircraft that were expected back did not return. One was a Robinson forty-four and the other was a Cessna 172. The Robby I know for a fact diverted since that pilot is a personal friend of mine, however I can't say with any certainty if the Cessna diverted. I'm assuming it did since the storm was pretty severe yesterday._"

If it were even possible, Mikasa's heart would've dropped further. One thing she knew for a fact was that Eren flew a Cessna 172. That was the final piece of the puzzle that created a grim image: Eren had been in an accident. Mikasa just knew it. It wasn't her being her old pessimistic self, hell, the last thing she wanted to be was pessimistic in a situation like this. But given all the facts and adding them up, Mikasa couldn't push the possibility to the back of her mind any longer.

Something had happened to Eren.

The first thing she did was phone Armin. She had no idea what to do, and doubted Armin would, but at least the blonde was smarter than her and had a much better hold on his emotions. If anything, he would be able to think of the right person to contact.

"Armin…Eren has…Armin I need your help. I think Eren's been in an accident."

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><p>Levi left the lodge in a mood fouler than the one he was in when he had learnt that he had to stay overnight due to the weather. Not only had he been unable to get more than two hours of sleep, but those precious two hours that he did get were plagued by highly inappropriate images of a certain brunette teenager who hadn't been able to leave his thoughts for the last few days. And after a short night of inappropriate yet vivid dreams, Levi had woken with an arousal that was unable to be satisfied.<p>

To say he was in a hell of a mood was a severe understatement.

The last thing he wanted to do was head back to Karanese. Instead, he topped up his chopper's tanks and headed off to the coast for the day, contemplating staying there for a few days pending the direction of his thoughts. But the man knew that if his thoughts were anything to go by, he would probably never return from the coast.

Flying high enough to be safe but low enough to have an unnecessarily excessive workload, Levi had successfully kept the brat off his mind as he flew. Not only was he concentrating on navigating and keeping the helicopter stable as the early morning winds toyed with its light airframe, but he was also keeping his eyes on the ground in the hopes of spotting some sort of wildlife as he flew over what he knew was a national park.

So far, the idea of going to the coast had been a great one. Traditionally speaking, the ocean had always been a place of birth, rebirth and healing, was it not? Or was that something debatable depending on the country, or possibly even culture? Whatever. Levi had always found the ocean to be a calming place, not only because of the endless expanse of humanless terrain, but also because of the monotonous loop of the ocean's beautiful hum. And not only was listening to the ocean calming, but he also found peace from just staring out at the horizon of the entrancingly blue-green ocean, so much like the color of Eren's wild eyes…

Levi hissed. "Fuck!"

Once again, his mind had wandered to the one thing he was trying to keep his mind from wondering to. The very thing that was chasing him all the way to the coast, keeping him from his own perfectly clean home and his comfortable king-sized bed had caught up with him. Suddenly, the ocean didn't seem like such a great idea. He would never get the brat out of his mind if the damn color of the ocean was even making him think of the boy. The entire adventure had now become redundant. In fact not only would it be redundant, but it would be _wasteful_. He may be a millionaire, but the businessman was not a fan of losing money for any reason whatsoever.

He could sit around at home and hate himself for becoming this way. He could sit in his TV room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom or even in his Porsche SUV and berate himself for feeling something he had vowed never to feel. He didn't need to go to the damn coast to tell himself something that he already knew. In the comfort of his own home, Levi had the luxury of time to analyse the situation and try to forget all about it.

_As if_, Levi scoffed internally.

Nothing he could do would make him forget about the brat. He knew the potency of his own obsessive nature, and it was futile to fight it. Even running away from it was simply cowardly.

Cowardly. Just the idea of being associated with the word was enough to solidify the man's resolve to return to Karanese immediately.

Before grabbing his map to locate an airfield where he could refuel for his trip back, Levi had a quick look outside so that he could confirm his location. According to his planned route, he should be near a remote airfield by the name of Shiganshina. He doubted it would be anything more than a simple asphalt strip, if even that, and according to the map, it was quite a distance away from closest town. It would most likely be challenging to spot, at best.

"Probably won't get fuel there," he said to himself before checking his map for any other airfields that may be nearby.

Levi did what fixed-wing pilots couldn't do – hover. He smirked to himself as he stabilized his aircraft so that he could read his map without moving forward and potentially away from his new destination. He had to admit that this did make him feel just a tiny bit smug, and for the briefest second he wanted to rub it in the brunette brat's face.

"Goddammit, Levi, stop thinking about that fucking child!" Levi roared suddenly, throwing his map to the seat beside him.

For just a few seconds, he stayed motionless, breathing heavily as he tried to calm himself from his outburst. Had it not been for his headset, he would've run his fingers through his hair…and possibly grab his hair and rip it out at the roots if that's what it would take to get the teen off his mind. And in those few seconds, Levi noticed something below him that was clearly out of place.

He turned his helicopter just a bit to get a better view, and peered at the white thing that had caught his attention. It wasn't severely crumpled but it looked deformed as it lay against a line of small trees. A deep groove dug into the wet earth was visible from Levi's altitude of two thousand feet above the ground, and he followed the groove to what he quickly identified as a runway. Levi's eyes shot back to the white thing crumpled against a tree as his mind quickly put two and two together: it was a wreckage.

For any pilot, fixed-wing or helicopter, professional or not, seeing the remains of another aircraft strewn across the earth while you are still airborne is unsettling no matter what kind of a person you may be. Even the stoic, ever-unperturbed businessman Levi Ackerman felt his heart begin to thrum in his throat as he stared at the remains of the fallen aircraft. For all he knew, the fuselage of that aircraft was full of mutilated corpses.

He drew a deep breath as he stared at the grizzly reminder of his own immortality. It could've been anyone…hell, it could've been him. Given the storm that had so suddenly arrived yesterday, it could've so damn easily been him on the ground there in the crumpled, Ferrari-red fuselage of his own helicopter.

Just then, Levi's eyes saw something else. Something that would've not been there if _all_ the occupants were dead.

Releasing his breath in mild relief, Levi made out the signal strip indicating that the occupants needed assistance.

He didn't waste another second before edging closer to the wreckage, finger on his PTT. He had to notify someone that there was an aircraft down in a remote area, because judging by the fact that the strip had not been taken away, the victims of the accident had most likely not received any post-crash attention. For all he knew, the survivors could be in dire need of medical attention.

Levi depressed the PTT button on his headset and spoke, "Area control, Lima Alpha Hotel."

After a few seconds of silence, a bored-sounding woman replied. "Area control, Lima Alpha Hotel go ahead."

"Lima Alpha Hotel, overhead Shiganshina Airfield and I have what appears to be an aircraft's wreckage in sight. No search and rescue on site."

"Standby, Lima Alpha Hotel."

Levi grit his teeth at this. When area controllers told an aircraft to standby, it could be anything from a few seconds to a few minutes before they got back to the aircraft. He could afford a few seconds, hell, he could afford a few minutes, but he honestly had no desire to waste his money hovering above a crash site he had no business hovering over. Fuel was not a cheap commodity, and despite being a millionaire with more than a few millions to spare, the man had no desire to waste his money, let alone his precious time.

"Lima Alpha Hotel, area control."

"Go head."

"Sir, confirm survivors on site?"

Levi sighed. "I'm just hovering over the site, ma'am. There are strips requesting assistance so I assume no search and rescue has been sent to the area. I am about to land there now."

A few seconds passed before the woman replied. "Copy. Sending search and rescue. Please advise on fatalities if possibly after landing."

Levi had already spoken more than he wanted to. He had no business being here, and the only reason he was doing this was because his conscience wouldn't rest easy if people ended up dying because of his selfish negligence. As a human being, he had the responsibility of at least ensuring that other humans weren't dead or dying before continuing on his own merry way.

With his tranquil afternoon of thoughtlessness no longer an option since the brunette named Eren Jaeger wouldn't leave his mind, he may as well be a good person and save someone's life. It's not as if he had somewhere better to be anyway. Instead of saying anything back to the controller, he simply acknowledged the woman's transmission with a double click of his PTT button before switching his frequency to Shiganshina Airfield's frequency and broadcasting his intentions to land to the north of the airfield.

After landing and powering down, Levi grabbed his first aid kit while waiting for the rotors to lose some momentum. He quickly inspected the contents of the kit, content that it could do enough to at least dress non-fatal wounds and burns. It may not be much, but his background in the military had taught him enough resourcefulness to be able to utilize minimum materials for maximum gain, so he was more than confident that he may even be able to treat more severe wounds. As he hopped out of his chopper, he sighed in a silent prayer to whatever god may be listening that he wouldn't find severely mutilated corpses.

As Levi walked towards the fallen plane, he grimaced at the condition that the aircraft was in. The tail was high in the air with the nose buried deep in the muddy earth, the propellers bent at ninety degrees with one of the blades dug into the earth and the other nearly flush with the cowling. The left wing had been torn off and left behind on the track the aircraft had created as it had careered off the runway, and the stub of the left wing had been buried into the muddy earth in the same fashion as the propellers. The right wing would've stood high and proud had it not been snapped two-thirds from the base, with the fallen piece barely attached to the rest of the wing as it hung precariously three meters above the ground. The fuselage of the aircraft was severely damaged from the hail and slightly crumpled from the impact, crunched up in on itself like a piece of paper tossed away lazily.

The entire wreckage looked unstable.

Nearing the wreckage, Levi noticed that there were clothes strewn out across the left wing of the aircraft. He could clearly make out what was obviously a pilot's uniform, mostly given away by the presence of the two-stripe epaulets on both shoulders of the white shirt, as well as another denim and another shirt. This display in itself should have been an indicated that the occupant – occupants? – was still alive. But the amount of blood on both sets of clothing was astounding, and that alone was enough to cause the raven-haired man to brace himself for the worst. The occupants may have been alive when the clothes were set out, but they could very well have bled out in the time it had taken Levi to arrive on the scene.

Levi felt his heart-rate begin to rise as he neared the fuselage. A feeling of mild dread began to settle over him as his mind vividly suggested at all the various things he could be exposed to when he reached the aircraft. What if he saw the badly mutilated bodies of young children? Or the body of a woman burnt beyond recognition as her lover cradled her corpse?

_No, no! _Levi thought, gritting his teeth.

Now was not the time to think about that. That is in the past. Buried, dead and gone.

With his heart now hammering in his chest as he fought back memories of his past, Levi stalked forward, bracing for what he may find. The first thing he noticed as he rounded the right side of the fuselage, aside from the fact that he would likely have to climb a bit to get into the awkwardly-angled aircraft, was that the door was cracked open just a fraction and that the windows were fogged up. Relief began to descend upon him; for windows to be fogged up, something (hopefully some_one_) had to be breathing, and that meant a survivor. He nodded once to himself as if to encourage himself to push on.

He climbed the side of the fuselage with the stealth and agility of a cat, the strength in his body easily hauling him up the two or so meters he had to climb to get to the door. With the first aid kit in one hand, Levi braced himself against the side of the aircraft and placed his free hand on the door. He let out a long breath, giving himself one more nod before he locked his fingers on the handle and yanked the door open.

Levi had expected to see many things. The images of his past had painted dozens of grizzly scenarios that the man had braced himself for. Given the amount of blood he'd seen on the clothes outside, he had expected to see bloodstains and splatter across the entire interior of the aircraft. Simply put, Levi had expected to see blood and gore, perhaps even death.

He was definitely not expecting to see what was presented to him on the backseat of the Cessna, a sight so shocking and unexpected that the first aid kit had slipped from his numb fingers and fallen to the earth below. Levi was frozen, eyes wide and mouth agape as he stared at the backseat of the small aircraft.

"What. The. Fuck."

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you :) As always, feedback is welcome.<strong>


	5. Chapter 5: A Bitter Cold Morning

**A/N: Thanks for still reading, it warms the cockles of my heart!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan or any of the characters or other brands mentioned.**

* * *

><p>Mikasa had only met Erwin Smith once before. It was at the ceremony where Eren was presented with his PPL certificate, two-stripe epaulets and a silver wings badge. The girl had taken an instant liking to Erwin simply because of the way the man had looked at Eren that day, with reverence and pride, a look Mikasa had never seen Grisha Jaeger give Eren even once in the boy's life. She liked Erwin, but she only thought she would see the man again once Eren got his CPL. Yet here she sat, between Armin and Erwin Smith himself, in the office of the man who owned the flight school Eren trained at.<p>

Pixis was a peculiar and eccentric man with wise eyes permanently fogged over in what many rumored to be drunkenness. These eyes wore the wrinkles of his years around them and his leathery skin sported the laugh-lines of a man who was always smiling. His impeccably shiny, bald head could only have been so perfectly maintained due to natural baldness and not a desire to be bald to be fashionable. Overall, the old man had a kind face, and from what both Mikasa and Armin had seen of the man in the months they'd known him, a kind personality to match.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice, Mr Smith," Pixis said, his eyes nearly closed because of his ear to ear smile.

"When it comes to my cadets, I will answer every beck and call," Erwin replied with a sincere smile.

It wasn't obvious to Mikasa, but Armin could clearly see the strain in Erwin's eyes. The man had a guarded gaze as he eyed Pixis, patiently awaiting the details of the sudden meeting, but behind that guarded expression was something Armin easily identified: worry. It was clear to the smaller blonde because he had seen the same worry in Mikasa's eyes millions of times while the girl pretended to be strong or nonchalant.

"Where's Eren?" Mikasa whispered. Armin turned to Mikasa, expecting to see the same expression as Erwin, but was shocked to see Mikasa's pain and fear clear in her eyes.

Pixis sighed. All three the guests in his office turned to him with bated breaths as the man gathered his thoughts. His regretful eyes had the teens' breaths hitched and hearts hammering in their chests, while Erwin calmly sat by with his jaw lightly clenched. Whatever Pixis was about to say would not be pleasant, and all of them knew it.

"I'm sure you all are aware of the storm that flared up yesterday without warning," Pixis said. Erwin nodded stiffly.

Mikasa closed her eyes and dropped her head into the palms of her hands. All she wanted was a direct answer, not the entire story of what had happened yesterday. She knew about the storm, and she knew that one Cessna hadn't returned to Karanese Central Airport. All she wanted to know now was if that aircraft was Eren's or not. Armin rested a hand on her thigh and gave a gentle squeeze, as if to tell her to just be patient.

"Eren Jaeger was with another hour-building pilot, Marco Bodt, on a flight to the east coast," Pixis continued. "No meteorological reports indicated that a storm, especially one so severe, was on its way." Pixis sighed again. "The aircraft the two boys hired never returned, Mr Smith."

Mikasa yelped behind her hands and Armin squeezed tightly at her thigh, his own breath suddenly ragged. Both had been aware that _a_ Cessna hadn't returned, but neither of them knew for sure that it was _Eren's_ Cessna. They had their suspicions that it was, and their hopes that it wasn't, but now it was all confirmed.

Eren had not returned. The missing aircraft was indeed Eren's.

Beside the two teens, Erwin nodded once in understanding. Nothing about the man's body language or facial expression betrayed what he was really feeling: fear. The man had to appear strong, but inside, he was afraid that there was more to the story than what Pixis had just shared. Erwin, just as Mikasa and Armin were, was scared of the potential tragedy in this.

"Go on," Erwin said.

"Early this morning we received a call from area control that a helicopter had spotted wreckage at an old airfield called Shiganshina. It's about two hundred and fifty miles south-east of Karanese."

Armin's breath caught. Mikasa snapped her head up and the color drained from her face. Erwin stiffened imperceptibly. All three of them held their breaths as Pixis continued to speak in a lower voice, avoiding eye contact with all but Erwin Smith.

"The wreckage is of a Cessna 172 with the registration markings X-ray Echo Yankee. That is one of our aircraft. That is the aircraft that Eren Jaeger and Marco Bodt hired yesterday for their flight."

If it were possible to lose any more color, Mikasa's face would have. She simply stared blankly ahead, her mind as blank as her face as Pixis' words settled in her mind. The aircraft that had not returned had in fact crashed, and there had been confirmation that it was the aircraft Eren had been flying yesterday. Eren had been in an accident. He had crashed.

Armin could feel his bottom lip begin to tremble. He could feel the urge to cry begin to bubble up in his chest as the information settled. His best friend had been in an accident and could very well be dead, but that's not the only thing that had the blonde's chest constricting painfully. He recognized the registration of the aircraft: it was the very same aircraft Eren had flown the night the three of them had their first flight together to see the beautiful skyline of their home city.

"Is he alive?" Mikasa whispered. The desperation in her voice was heart breaking, and Armin knew that he wouldn't be able to fight the tears for long. To hear his strongest friend so broken was enough to tear him apart.

"That cannot be confirmed at this stage," Pixis said solemnly.

Erwin let out what sounded like a deep sigh. Still, the blonde man showed no signs of distress. In fact, he showed no signs of any emotion. He simply took in the facts that Pixis was presenting him with as if it weren't his company's, and his personal, investment that could be lying dead at some abandoned airfield. There was a long and heavy silence in the room as the four of them sat, each with their own haunting thoughts. All of them were afraid for Eren's life, but all of them knew that there was nothing that could be done if the boy was indeed dead.

"What course of action should we take?" Erwin eventually asked.

Pixis was quick to answer. "Search and rescue services are currently en-route and will give a status report as soon as they arrive on the scene. If the pilots have survived then they will be grounded and investigated…" Pixis turned to Mikasa with a forced smile and added, "It's just standard procedure, of course. Once they are cleared of any responsibility for the accident, they can commence flying."

"So Eren will be unable to fly during the investigation?" Erwin confirmed.

"That is correct. Of course, as I know the boy, he is definitely not responsible for the downing of the aircraft. He is a diligent student and a committed pilot, and has never so much as skipped one item on a checklist in all the months I've known him. I have full faith that he will be cleared of responsibility in the shortest possible time."

Erwin nodded thoughtfully and then smiled. It was a sincere smile but it still didn't touch the man's eyes. Although it was heart-warming to hear such praise about a boy that he had seen so much potential in, the fact that they were still unsure of the boy's status was too heavy a weight for Erwin to fully appreciate the older man's kind words.

"Indeed," Erwin said. "The boy is gifted, a natural even. I can't imagine that he would have been a contributing factor to the accident, accidental or not."

* * *

><p>The caress of the freezing morning air was what had brought the brunette to the surface of his deep unconsciousness, tickling the nerves on his body until the sting of the cold became too painful to ignore. Even though the cold tore at the blackness that held him under with vivacious glee, he still had to fight the gravity that held his lead eyelids down. It took every ounce of energy that the teen had to force his eyelids back, separating them from what he imagined to be a concrete bond. It was a mammoth task, but the brunette eventually won, the magnitude of his willpower eventually outweighing the heaviness of his lids.<p>

His eyes eventually fluttered open, an immediate scowl plastering his features as the blinding light of the early morning violated his little sanctuary. It may not have been a warm or even windproof sanctuary, but it was a little cavern that kept him shielded from the worst that the cold, early morning had to offer.

The cabin of the small aircraft was mostly intact, except for a few items that had been thrown around and a few instruments that had been broken in what could only be described as a gentle accident, or perhaps a serious incident. Whatever it was, Eren was simply relieved to be alive and still in one piece. He could feel his toes and his fingers, and the dull throbbing of the pain of broken bones was completely absent. Eren laid his head back and smiled at what was a clear victory over death.

After his brief silent celebration, Eren looked around the cabin to closer inspect the damage of the accident. Aside from the damaged instruments, the interior of the Cessna gave no indication that it had been in an accident at all. That was what Eren had thought until his eyes dropped from the instrument panel to seat directly beside him.

The seat was empty, and the cream fabric of the seat had a massive bloodstain discoloring it.

Eren's heart sank and he swallowed back the lump in his throat as he stared at the massive bloodstain in the vacant seat. He had never seen so much blood in one spot in his entire life, and for the briefest moment the image of Marco slumped over in the seat, blood dripping from his face, filled Eren's mind. The brunette vaguely remembered seeing Marco incapacitated after the accident, and as he stared blankly at the empty seat the memories of what had happened came crashing down on him all at once.

He had searched for a pulse. He desperately fingered Marco's neck to see if his friend was still alive. Did he find a pulse? Eren racked his mind but no matter how hard he thought about it, he just couldn't remember that one piece of information. The most vital piece of information.

Is Marco dead or alive?

The most logical explanation for the empty seat would be that Marco had simply gotten up and left. That would obviously mean that Marco was indeed still alive and well, and most definitely mobile. The very thought of this gave Eren a sliver hope and suddenly the brunette could wait to get out of the cabin of the aircraft as well. He had to find Marco.

_Marco is alive_, Eren thought as he turned himself to exit the aircraft. _He's fine. He's outside and he's just waiting for me to come to him._

Desperation or not, Eren had to remain optimistic. With his muscles stiff from the cold and aching from lying in an awkward position for an immeasurable amount of time, Eren struggled to move his body to open the door. It was a herculean task that brought about endless hissing and cussing as Eren's stiff movements slowly breathed life into his aching limbs. Eventually, the teen got the door open and set his foot out to exit the aircraft, expecting his foot to rest on the wheel strut, but instead it was met with thin air. Suddenly, Eren was falling.

It wasn't the quick little drop he'd expected; Eren had time to yelp and still brace for impact as he fell to the muddy earth. The impact had knocked the air out of his lungs and sent a stinging pain shooting through his body, causing Eren to cry out profanities that would've shocked a sailor. After writhing around on the ground long enough for the pain to subside, Eren sighed heavily and dragged himself onto his feet and inspected his mobility once more. Aside from a severe sting in his right ankle, the brunette was satisfied that he was unharmed. He was about to set out to find Marco when he caught sight of the Cessna.

His eyes widened in disbelief as he took in the sight before him. While the interior indicated that the aircraft had been in a minor incident (the massive bloodstain aside), the exterior of the aircraft told a whole other story: it looked like the aircraft had been to hell and back. The fuselage was battered with the deep indentations of hail damage and crumpled from the sheer impact of the collision with the small but sturdy tree in front of it. The plane's nose was buried deep into the earth against the roots of the tree, with one propeller bent back ninety degrees against the cowling and the other at the same angle but dug into the earth. The tail of the aircraft was nearly three meters in the air and the stump of the left wing was buried in the earth beside the fuselage. A portion of the right wing was dismembered but still hanging precariously to the rest of the wing by the supports that ran through the structure.

For a second, Eren couldn't believe that what he was seeing was the same aircraft he had just exited.

"Holy shit," Eren said. A chill ran down his spine as he realized just how close to death he'd actually come.

"It's pretty bad, huh?" a familiar voice said.

Eren wheeled around, very nearly losing his footing in his haste to confirm the voice he'd just heard. As soon as he stabilised himself, his features all softened into a relieved smile as his eyes rested on the dark-haired man before him.

"Marco," Eren breathed.

"Welcome to the land of the living," Marco said with a wimpy smile.

"I could say the same to you!"

Eren's eyes scanned Marco's body, and the first thing he noticed was that the man had nothing but his briefs on, with his trousers in his hands. His torso was littered with bruises and dried blood, as well as what appeared to be cuts, but Eren couldn't be sure from this distance. Marco's briefs were stained crimson and even the dark trousers in his hands had a sinister darkness to them. All the blood appeared to have come from his head – his face was covered in dry blood and his short hair was matted against his scalp as the blood had crusted there. Remembering the size of the bloodstain on the seat, Eren shuddered as he wondered just how big the injury itself must be.

But Marco was indeed alive. Eren had never felt more relieved in his life.

Marco shifted uncomfortably as Eren's eyes ran up and down his exposed body. He knew the brunette wasn't checking him out like _that_, but he still couldn't help how intensely awkward he felt with Eren's eyes on him. He cleared his throat then, catching Eren's attention, and Eren's oceanic eyes were immediately on his own.

"I've placed a strip a bit closer to the runway," Marco informed Eren. "Hopefully somebody will fly by and see us. This place seems pretty deserted."

Eren's first thought was: _so much for an airfield_. Besides a safer landing surface than a random grass field, the general idea of aiming to put a plane down at an airfield is so that it wouldn't be left undiscovered for a lengthy period of time. The brunette asked, "Where the hell are we?"

"Shiganshina," Marco replied unsurely. "There's a town about ten kays from here but judging by the condition of the airfield, I doubt that anybody there even knows about this airfield."

"What exactly is the condition of the airfield?"

Marco grimaced. "The hangars are all but torn down and there's one brick building that looks like it came straight out of a war zone. And don't even get me started on the runway…"

"That bad?" Eren whispered.

The freckled man nodded slowly before speaking in a low voice. "Eren, to be honest, I'm actually shocked that we're still alive."

A shiver ran down Eren's body but the teen didn't know if it was because of the words Marco had said, or the weight of those words, or if he was simply getting cold as the icy wind kissed his wet clothes. Perhaps it was all three. Yes, they had cheated death, but by what margin? Eren had seen first-hand what the fuselage had looked like, and given what Marco had just said, Eren felt pretty sure that their being alive was nothing short of a miracle.

"How's your head?" Eren asked.

"Sore, but I'll live. And yours?"

"Mine?"

Eren wasn't aware that he'd been injured at all. He lifted his hand to his hairline just above his forehead and prodded there roughly until a searing pain shot across his scalp. He winced and cursed, jerking his hand away from the injury before bringing his fingers up to stare at them. There were speckles of blood on the pads of his fingers. He grimaced as he stared at the offensive speckles as if he couldn't believe that he'd gotten hurt in the first place.

Without answering Marco's question, Eren quickly changed the subject. "Which way to town?"

Marco pointed to a ridge rising above the treetops of the grouping of trees they'd slammed the aircraft into. "It's on the other side of _that_."

Eren looked at the ridge and sighed. Finding help would obviously swing things in their favor, but exhausting themselves on a trek through a small forest and up a little mountain would certainly do them no good. Besides, Survival 101 clearly states: stay at the crash site. An aircraft fuselage is a lot easier to spot from the air than people walking around. As much as he wanted to take the trek to find help, he knew for a fact that it would do them more harm than good.

The brunette looked at his watch. It read 06:19. He nodded at this and then spoke to Marco, saying, "It's twenty-past six now. Let's stay here till about twelve, and if no one comes, we can take a hike into town."

Marco nodded in agreement. Silence came upon them and all that could be heard was the cheerful chirping of the birds. The singsong happiness of the many birds in the trees made the reality of the situation seem like anything but that; a reality. If it weren't for his mostly naked body and blood-crusted skin, Marco wouldn't have believed that this was the scene of an air crash. Naked…the man blushed then as he realized he had been engaging Eren in conversation while wearing nothing but his bloodied underwear.

"I'm hanging up my clothes to dry," Marco explained. Eren's brows furrowed as if he hadn't even realized that Marco wasn't near fully clothed. "They're uh, wet and they'll only lower my body temperature so uh…don't mind me."

Eren smiled, nearly breaking out into laughter at the expression on Marco's face. The man's freckled face was deep crimson and his entire body stance was awkward as he shifted uncomfortably in one spot before suddenly turning and walking away. Eren chuckled to himself as he observed Marco's discomfort, before bounding to catch up to the other male while zealously stripping his own clothes from his body. Marco froze and stared at Eren with eyes the size of the moon as Eren very quickly stripped himself completely bare.

"Don't tell horse-face," Eren warned jokingly.

Marco's eyes widened impossibly, obviously not hearing the joking undertone to Eren's growling. "I-I wouldn't d-dare!"

Eren laughed loudly then. Marco's discomfort was priceless and the teasing streak in Eren was latching onto it with the maddening desire to poke more fun at the man. He knew it was downright mean to do this, but Eren simply couldn't resist.

"You should take off your undies too," Eren said. He smirked suggestively. "If we're gonna be hiking later, the last thing you'd want is wet balls and chafing thighs."

Marco's cheeks darkened and the man looked about ready to be swallowed whole by the earth as he buried his face in his hands, causing Eren to erupt into howling laughter. He patted Marco on the shoulder in good spirit before making his way back to the aircraft, leaving Marco alone to spare the man any further embarrassment.

Once inside the aircraft, Eren cracked the door just a bit to allow fresh air to pass through the cabin before settling in the backseat beside Marco. Marco sat awkwardly hunched in the small space, his hands protectively cupping his manhood in an attempt to keep himself from being exposed. Eren, on the other hand, was all but proudly baring himself for all to see as he rubbed his hands together vigorously, not caring that his most intimate parts were exposed.

Marco admired Eren's confidence. Even though it was just the two of them, Marco felt extremely uncomfortable with their nudity. Maybe it was because he was gay and he feared that Eren might think he's coming onto him, or maybe it was just part of his personality, but whatever it is, Marco couldn't stand being naked with Eren, especially in such close proximity.

"Damn, it's cold," Eren remarked, interrupting Marco's thoughts.

Marco swallowed hard at what Eren said. He was also getting cold, freezing in fact, even now that the wet clothes were no longer on his body. Even though they were in the warmer, mostly wind-free environment of the Cessna's interior, Marco was still shivering and his lips and fingertips had a blue tinge to them. But no matter how cold he may be feeling, he simply couldn't do what he had to in order to keep warm.

Share body warmth.

The thought of huddling together for warmth had obviously crossed Eren's mind, since he was completely unperturbed by the fact that he was naked with his gay friend. He'd never been bothered by Marco's sexual orientation, and the only flack the dark-haired boy ever got from Eren for being gay was the continuous mocking because he was dating Jean. Eren couldn't get enough of telling Marco how poor his taste in men is, but that was it. It was nothing more than playful bickering. So Eren was perfectly comfortable with their current situation, but that was a lot more than the brunette could say for the freckled man – it was blatantly obvious that Marco was incredibly uncomfortable with being naked with Eren, and Eren could see it. He knew that Marco was feeling this way because Marco probably thought that Eren was feeling uncomfortable. At this rate, the two of them would freeze to death.

Eren sighed. "Come here."

A blush dusted Marco's freckled cheeks and he stared wide-eyed at Eren. He saw that Eren was not joking when he had spoken those commanding words. Eren was indeed calling Marco closer, telling the man to close the gap between them so they could sit together. It seemed surreal.

"E-Eren?"

"I'm getting cold," Eren stated, "and so are you. We're gonna freeze to death if we don't use each other to keep warm, so get your ass over here."

Marco's blush deepened but he agreed silently and scooted closer to Eren. Eren sighed as he felt Marco's warm body against his and smiled; it felt heavenly.

"P-please don't tell Jean about this," Marco whispered.

"Hey." Eren pulled a little away from Marco to look the man in the eyes. "This isn't like _that_, so chill. We're doing this to survive, so even if you do tell him about this, he won't be pissed at you." Eren laughed curtly before continuing. "And he can't possibly hate me any more than he already does."

Marco laughed nervously but nodded in agreement nonetheless. Once Eren was satisfied that Marco had relaxed and would no longer protest, he snuggled against Marco's body seeking out warmth again. Marco's body was still rigid, covering himself protectively, while Eren was completely relaxed and absorbing the little warmth Marco had to share. Of course, Eren couldn't expect miracles, so he just left Marco to be…at least the cabin was getting warmer by the minute.

"Do you think anybody will come?" Marco whispered.

Eren shrugged against Marco. "I don't know. We can only hope." Eren remembered something then and sat bolt-upright, eyes ablaze. "Hey! Your emergency radio!"

Marco shook his head. "The battery is dead…"

"How? You always make sure it's full when you fly."

"I guess I must've accidentally left it on."

Eren frowned, wondering how someone like Marco could've been so irresponsible, but didn't question it any further. He lay back down against Marco, closing his eyes, content. The exhaustion of the entire ordeal and the increasing warmth of the snug Cessna cabin began to lull the brunette to sleep. Marco fought his own drowsiness, watching Eren fall asleep against him, enjoying the warmth their close proximity gave. The dark-haired man didn't dare tell Eren that he'd found blood on the radio and that it was in fact Eren who had turned the thing on and left it on. It had to have been an accident in any case, and Marco didn't want Eren blaming himself for their being stranded.

Eventually though, Marco also succumbed to sleep. His head dropped against Eren's and his eyes finally closed. The moderate warmth in the cabin enveloped the two young men in a comforting blanket, allowing their sheer exhaustion to drag them both under.

They were so soundly asleep that neither of them heard the beating of the rotors of a helicopter as it hovered overhead for nearly five minutes, eventually inching closer until it touched down just meters from the downed Cessna. Neither Marco nor Eren heard a man call out to them as he neared the aircraft, scaling the wheel strut of the Cessna before yanking the door to peer inside. It wasn't the noise of the man jerking the door open or the sudden blast of cold air on their faces that brought them back to consciousness, but instead it was the man's deep and highly disturbed voice as he peered inside the cabin.

"What. The. Fuck."

* * *

><p>Marco was the first to realize exactly what was happening. He sat upright, all but throwing Eren to the other side of the cabin as his wide and petrified eyes met with the impassive glare of the raven-haired male whose head was inside the cabin. The man quirked a brow and ran his eyes over Marco's naked body before doing the same to Eren, who was slumped over with his head bowed. The man's mouth was set in a grim scowl.<p>

Levi had prepared to see many things when he'd decided to land at the crash site. He'd gone so far as mentally prepared himself to relive a horrific trauma that he never again wanted to relive. But the _last_ thing he thought he'd see was two young men lying naked on top of one another inside the fuselage.

"Well," the man said, "I guess you boys are doing okay."

"I-it's not w-what it l-looks l-like!" Marco cried out.

Marco's distressed voice instantly woke Eren. The raven didn't realize the brunette shuffling into a sitting position as his own eyes scanned the interior of the aircraft. The interior of the aircraft looked exponentially better than the outside, suffering little more damage than a few cracked or broken screens over some of the instruments. What definitely did stand out to the man were the bloodstains on the seats, especially on the left seat. The sheer size of the bloodstain had the raven turning back to the boys, brows furrowed slightly. Whoever had sat there had lost _a lot_ of blood.

"Who sat there?" he asked.

"Me," Marco admitted.

The raven's eyes scanned Marco's body in search of the source of all the blood. It was then that he noticed that the dark-haired man's hair was caked with blood and matted to his scalp, with dried blood streaking down the side of his face. How was this boy conscious, or even still alive with the amount of blood he'd lost? Levi studied the now-blushing man intently, and once he was satisfied that the other wounds on the man's torso were not remotely severe, he looked back up at the man and spoke.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes." The answer did not come from the freckled man.

The raven turned his head in the direction of the voice. What he saw made his heart stutter and his breath hitch; bright oceanic eyes stared intently at him, focusing on him and nothing else. Those were the same eyes that had been haunting his dreams and plaguing his thoughts for the last three days. But that wasn't what had Levi damn near gawking – the chocolate-haired teen was naked. There was not a stitch of clothing hiding a perfectly sculpted torso with flawless, tanned skin from Levi's hungry eyes. It was even more perfect than Levi had imagined it to be, than his subconscious had dreamed it up to be.

_Fuck_, the raven thought, swallowing hard before tearing his eyes from Eren's naked form.

"What are your names?" he asked. He was shocked by how weak his voice sounded and he wanted to kick himself in the ass for making himself look like an idiot in front of the youngsters.

"Hey, I know you," Eren said. Levi took a deep breath before turning his attention back to the brunette, using every ounce of his self-control to not rake his eyes up and down that perfect body the boy had. "You were at the safety evening the other day. I've never seen you there before then."

"Your name, brat," Levi hissed.

Eren was taken aback by the hostility in the man's voice and the coldness of his hard glare. He sat in silence for a few seconds just _staring_ into Levi's stormy eyes, unable to answer the man.

"I'm Marco," Marco eventually said. "That's Eren."

_Eren Jaeger._ Levi continued to stare at Eren, enjoying how the fire in the boy's eyes dulled into fear under the weight of his gaze. It made his skin tingle.

"And you, sir?" Marco politely inquired.

"Levi," he breathed, still staring at Eren.

Eren felt like a concrete block had been placed on his chest. Levi's glare held him locked in place, unable to move, but that's not the worst part. The worst part was that he _didn't want _to move. He wanted to keep staring into those impassive grey eyes until he could no longer keep his own eyes open, and the brunette had no idea why. Something about the man's eyes had ensnared him, much like they had that first night he'd seen them.

Levi suddenly looked away then, leaving Eren flustered. The boy blinked vigorously as if the continuous fluttering of his eyelids would clear his suddenly foggy mind.

"When did you crash?" Levi asked Marco.

"It was an emergency landing," Eren barked furiously, "not a _crash_!"

The angry growling of the brunette had Levi's body tingling with desire. The way the brunette's brows were furrowed in anger and his eyes ablaze with determination had Levi biting his tongue. He had to get out of there and _fast_. It was only a matter of seconds before he'd be sporting an embarrassing hard-on.

"Yesterday morning," Marco said.

As quickly as Eren had gotten riled up, he'd calmed down. Shock rolled through his body as he mentally calculated just how long they must've been stranded if what Marco was saying was correct. It had to be correct…after all, they had taken off just before 06:30 the precious morning. His wide eyes were on Marco, staring in utter disbelief. It had been so dark when they had landed that it felt like night. Also, if they had crashed _yesterday morning_, that meant that they had been out for nearly a whole day.

"Did you sleep since the accident?" Levi asked Marco.

"We both lost consciousness," Marco informed Levi. "I woke a little after five this morning and Eren woke around six."

"Have you been experiencing any headaches, dizziness or nausea since you've been awake?"

"No," Marco and Eren answered at the same time.

Levi eyed Marco sceptically but accepted his answer. Even with the massive amount of blood the freckled man had lost, there was clearly nothing life-threatening about the pilot's condition. Eren also seemed fine, in fact, the brunette was in much better shape than his friend. Besides, there was nothing Levi could do for the boys, even if they were in need of medical attention. These two were in need of brain scans and possibly x-rays, so there was nothing he could do even if he wanted to.

Which he didn't.

He just wanted to get the hell out of there before he started staring at the brunette's naked body again.

Or before he jumped over the backrest he was leaning against and pinned the brat to…

"Search and rescue is en-route," Levi suddenly said. "I have to stay here until they arrive, since I reported the crash. I'll be outside."

"Thank you," Marco said with a sweet smile.

"I'd suggest you boys get dressed," Levi added, eyes on Eren again, "unless you want more people to see what you have to offer."

Levi heard a gasp but didn't bother to see which of the two brats he had startled. He had barely finished his sentence and he was already halfway out of the Cessna, ready to leap down to the muddy earth. He had to get out of there and put as much distance between himself and Eren as humanly possible. With the boy's perfect, naked body so close to him, Levi had been unable to contain the thoughts of how he wanted that body…to feel it, to see more of it; underneath him, on top of him, against the wall, writhing on the floor…

The man groaned as he slipped inside the sanctuary of his Robinson, throwing his head back against the set and palming his half-erect member through his trousers. If he ever had even the slightest hope of getting Eren off his mind, that hope had been obliterated now. He would _never_ be able to unsee what he'd already seen: the image of Eren Jaeger's naked body was now engraved into the millionaire's mind _forever_.

All the feelings of irritation, anger, and even the shimmering hate that Levi had felt for the boy were all doused and replaced by a furious _need_. His desire to have the boy, his _need to own him_ had exploded into full-blown obsession. There was no fighting it anymore. There was no desire to fight it anymore. Levi was hopelessly fixated on something, on this boy, and he _needs to own Eren_.

Fuck what happened in his past, what happened with _her_ that had almost ended him. To hell with the mental agony and the blistering heartache that had crippled him when the last object of his obsession had left him. Fuck what had happened all those years ago that had absolutely ruined him. Fuck that he swore he'd never get like this again.

Levi wanted Eren. And he would do _anything_ to get the boy, _to own him._

"I _will_ make him mine."

* * *

><p><strong>I hope you enjoyed that! Follow to receive notifications on updates and review or just PM me to harass me, I don't mind *forever alone* <strong>


	6. Chapter 6: One Foot In The Door

**A/N: Yay it's time for chapter 6 :) Firstly I want to say thank you to all those who followed, favorited and reviewed this story...every little bit of support is awesome and it keeps me motivated to keep writing JUST FOR YOU GUYS, cause I love you and stuff and things.**

**I hope you enjoy this one as you've enjoyed the previous ones, and...yes. Yes. I've suddenly run out of things to say. So please, enjoy :)**

**Disclaimer: As per usual, Attack on Titan, its character and any other brands that appear herein are not mine. At all. Else I'd be a millionaire. I think.**

* * *

><p>The meeting in Pixis' office had long since adjourned, and Mikasa and Armin were sitting at the airport restaurant awaiting further news. Armin was trying to read a book he had on hand, but because of his emotional distress he was unable to focus on what was otherwise a captivating story. Not knowing the status of Eren's well-being was tormenting the blonde, but he knew that whatever he was feeling could not possibly be worse that what Mikasa was feeling.<p>

Growing up, Mikasa and Eren had always looked out for Armin. It was how the three of them functioned, since Armin was always the target of school bullies. But even amongst the strong ones, there was an alpha, their unrequited leader, and that was Mikasa. The girl looked out for Eren, saving the impulsive boy from all the fights he picked that he would never have been able to win. It had been Mikasa's duty in life to protect her brother, and after Eren had lost his mother, Mikasa had taken it upon herself to be a mother to Eren as he grew. She loved Eren like no one could ever love the boy again, giving him the love of a mother, a sister and of a best friend. She cared for him and dedicated herself to him, keeping him safe when he was being irresponsible and looking out for him when no one else could.

If Mikasa lost Eren, the single person she loved more than life itself, it would ruin her. She wouldn't be able to function if her beloved brother was to die, especially so tragically, and she would undoubtedly blame herself despite not having been able to do anything to prevent the accident. Armin worried, or rather knew that if Eren were to die, Mikasa wouldn't hesitate to follow suit. Call it selfish, but Armin couldn't lose both his best friends. So while Mikasa lost herself to a depression as she contemplated Eren's demise, Armin, on top of all the stress surrounding the accident, was trying to formulate ways to comfort Mikasa if need be.

Erwin came to the quiet corner of the restaurant where Mikasa and Armin were seated adjacently around an empty table. The man caught Armin's eye as he neared, giving the younger blonde a guarded smile before setting down two large cups of steaming hot black coffee. Armin returned Erwin's smile with a timid one of his own, watching as the man set down the cups.

"I brought you kids something to drink," Erwin said.

"Thank you," Armin said.

Mikasa didn't answer. She didn't even acknowledge Erwin's presence, and it wasn't unlikely that she hadn't even noticed Erwin's presence at all. She was catatonic as she stared vacantly at the table before her.

"Any news?" Armin tried. Erwin shook his head. "I can't believe this is happening…"

"This sort of thing can happen to anyone, even the best pilots," Erwin said.

Armin wanted to snort at the man's poor attempt at comforting him, but he knew better than to do that. Erwin Smith may be friendly and warm, but he didn't strike Armin as the kind of man that often dealt with people face to face. In addition to that, Erwin didn't know Eren like Armin and Mikasa did – to Erwin, losing Eren may be losing an acquaintance and a vital investment, but to Mikasa and Armin, losing Eren wouldn't only be losing a friend and a brother, it would be losing a very important part of their lives.

Just then, a shrill ringing broke the silence. Armin immediately dropped his gaze while Mikasa snapped her head towards Erwin, noticing the man for the first time. She watched with cautious eyes as the man dug his cell out from his trouser pocket, studying the lit screen for just a second before swiping his finger across it and answering it with a warm smile. For a split second Mikasa glared at Erwin, angered by the fact that he could still smile so heartily in light of the current situation.

"Levi," Erwin said. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Erwin's smile suddenly disappeared as he listened intently to the speaker on the other line. His thick brows furrowed furiously for a long moment before relaxing completely. After another second, man's whole face and even his entire body relaxed and he breathed out a sigh of immense relief that caught both Armin and Mikasa's undivided attention.

"And you're sure it's Eren Jaeger?" Erwin asked.

Mikasa's undivided attention was on Erwin as she watched the man smile and nod as the caller continued to speak. Her entire body perked up and she suddenly found herself trembling in anticipation after hearing Eren's name. She held her fingers crossed and uttered a silent prayer as she waited impatiently for Erwin to end the call and address her and tell her Eren is alive and that everything is okay. Armin, on the other hand, stayed motionless as he stared at Erwin, afraid to get his hopes up lest they be crushed. He had to remain strong, just this once, because if things turned out for the worst, Mikasa would have no one to turn to.

"That's great news, thank you Levi." A short pause followed, and Erwin chuckled deeply. "I'd appreciate that. Thank you. Bye."

Erwin hardly had time to end the call before Mikasa's hands were desperately clawing at his forearm, demanding his attention. "Who was that? Is Eren okay? Where is he now?"

"That was a close personal friend of mine," Erwin explained as Mikasa and Armin listened impatiently. The girl's nails were nearly digging into Erwin's flesh at this point, but the muscular man stayed still and spoke calmly despite this. "He was the one that called in the accident. He landed on site to check for survivors after he was assured that search and rescue is on the way."

"Eren. What about Eren?" Mikasa pushed.

"Eren is fine," Erwin said. "Eren and Marco will both be in a chopper and on their way back to Karanese in a few minutes, courtesy of my friend."

The girl gasped and her grip faltered until one by one, her fingers fell from Erwin's arm to the table. She stared at the man's calm, angelic face as waves of relief washed over her, her mouth agape and tears filling her eyes. The weight that had been torn from her body as she found out Eren is still alive had the girl breathing again, almost wailing loudly as Erwin's words resonated in her mind: _Eren is fine_.

Eren is alive.

The girl folded her arms on the table and threw her head down on them before letting out a loud sob. Happiness flowed from her in the form of tears and her shoulders shook vigorously as she wailed, unable to control the happiness and relief that she was feeling. She had been so ready to accept that Eren had died, and to accept the consequences of his death. She had been so ready to die with him. Now she didn't have to. She could live. She could live because her Eren had survived.

"Thank you," Armin choked out, his own happiness nearly reducing him to tears.

The blonde held his own, though, rubbing soothing circles on Mikasa's back as his own body burned from the wake of the immense relief. He greeted Erwin as the cadet recruiter excused himself to deliver the news to Pixis, all the while comforting Mikasa as the girl cried.

His brother had made it. Armin smiled a weak smile and ran his free hand through his hair, thinking for just a second that he had been an idiot to think that Eren would die so easily; Eren was as resilient as a virus, and Armin knew that Eren wouldn't succumb to something as menial as an accident. He chuckled at his metaphor, gently placing his arms around Mikasa and lifting the girl into a tight embrace.

Once upon a time, Armin was small and frail, and would always cry in Mikasa's arms, but that had all changed. The blonde had grown taller, slightly more muscular, and his shoulders were now broad enough and strong enough to take his strongest friend into his own arms and comfort her for once. He smiled as he felt Mikasa's wet face in the crook of his neck, her tears quickly subsiding, happy because for once, he could comfort Mikasa and not the other way around.

"He's okay," she whispered.

Armin nodded and whispered back, "Eren is alive."

* * *

><p>Eren and Marco stood back to back as they dressed, Marco silently while Eren was very vocal about the discomfort of squeezing back into wet clothes. The clothes may not have been as wet as they were when they were first set out to dry, but they were still uncomfortable to wriggle into and cold courtesy of the freezing breeze. Eren was busy rubbing his feet against his hands in an attempt to dry them so that he could put his socks back on when Marco softly called to Eren.<p>

"You're not going to believe this," Marco whispered.

"What?" Eren asked, his attention still on his feet.

"You have to see it for yourself."

This urgency in Marco's voice Eren's attention. Without wasting another second, Eren pulled his wet socks on and shoved his feet into his shoes and jumped up. He turned towards Marco, looking beyond his uniformed friend at whatever it was that had caught Marco's attention. When Eren saw the Ferrari-red chopper parked just a few meters behind the Cessna, his blood ran cold.

"Impossible…"

"I think your best friend finally has a face," Marco said.

Eren couldn't believe what he was seeing. For months he had heard that voice and that call sign, stalking him in the air as if the pilot got off on ruining Eren's day. For months Eren had dreamed of nothing more than to shove the arrogant prick against a wall and punch the man and yell at him to _back the hell up_. For months, Eren's hatred for that Ferrari-red Robinson Forty-Four with the registration LAH had grown and festered despite not knowing who it was that piloted the machine.

Now as he looked upon what was a relatively inoffensive sight (since the machine was stationary and not purring as its rotors spun around noisily), he could finally put a face to the bored monotone voice that made his blood boil every time he heard it over the radio. It was a face that had intrigued him, with eyes that had captured and held his interest, the youthful face of an impassive, raven-haired man that had saved Eren and Marco's life. A face that captured his interest a person that had saved his life, but a man that Eren absolutely hated.

Thinking back to the first time he'd seen the man, Eren remembered that he hadn't spoken to the man once the entire evening. He had caught the man's eyes several times, intrigued by the man and curious about his whereabouts, but no conversation ensued. The only time he'd spoken to the man was when he'd bumped into the man after writing his ATG exam. Eren tried hard to remember that morning, but through his exhaustion, his head injury, and the severe hangover he had been battling that day, his memories of his brief encounter with the man were pretty foggy.

Did he even speak to the man that day? The man spoke to him.

Eren scowled as he remembered this. Yes, the man had spoken to him. Only one sentence, or was it two? Either way, the man had spoken to him. The one thing that stood out to Eren, even in the midst of his alcohol-induced suffering was that the voice of the man was painfully familiar. It was as if he'd heard the voice a thousand times.

"Bastard," Eren hissed as it all clicked in his mind.

Yes, that man, Levi, was indeed the pilot of the infamous LAH. The very man that had intrigued Eren and ultimately saved the teen's life proved to be the very same man Eren had been fantasizing about kicking in the gut.

"I can't believe it's the _same_ guy!" Eren growled glaring at the helicopter. "Oh, I'm gonna give him a piece of…"

"Eren!" Marco cried out. The brunette turned to Marco. "Don't, please. This guy literally just saved our lives. If you're going to fight with him, please at least wait until search and rescue is here."

Eren clenched his jaw as he glared at the chopper as if his very glare could make the thing self-combust…oh how he wished it could After a long moment of staring wherein Marco silently pleaded with him to keep himself under control, Eren eventually relaxed and let out an irritable sigh. He nodded once, agreeing to Marco's terms, before going straight back to the Cessna to sit inside it again. The least he could do was not look at the eyesore.

The two young men waited for just over twenty minutes when that familiar monotonous voice called for them to 'get their asses out of the damn plane'. It took all of Eren's restraint to not jump down right on top of the Robinson pilot and throttle the man right there on the ground. Eren listened to his inner voice of reason as it told him wouldn't look good on his resume if he killed the man who'd saved his life. In fact, it wouldn't look good on his resume if he killed a man at all.

A group of six people had congregated around the Cessna. The two paramedics immediately got to work on the injured pilots while two photographers, one from the investigation team and one from a local newspaper, took photos of the downed aircraft. One investigator walked around the aircraft while taking notes pertaining to its condition, while another investigator questioned Levi a ways away from the pilots. Eren glared holes into the back of the raven's head as the paramedic cleaned the wound on his own head.

Levi looked so calm while talking to the much bigger investigator. Eren found himself annoyed by this, as he'd hoped the man's large stature would at least intimidate the chopper pilot some. But it was to no avail, and Levi held his own as the investigator spoke…in fact, it looked more like the investigator was intimidated by Levi.

_Bastard!_ Eren thought, grinding his teeth together hard.

Once the investigator was done with Levi, the two shook hands roughly in a primitive display of dominance before Levi headed off to his satanic machine and the investigator made his way to Eren. The investigator waited patiently for the paramedic to finish up on Eren, staring at the teen with probing eyes that made the teen feel as though his skin were on fire. This was what he was hoping Levi would feel because of the investigator, not Eren himself.

"Good day, young man," the investigator said once he had Eren a ways away from Marco. He was a tall man with a figure that had obviously been a muscular one in his younger days, but was now slightly rounded due to age. Nonetheless, he still looked strong and sturdy. His face was rectangular and framed by a white beard that ran up the sides of his face to meet with his white, slicked-back hair. A fluffy white mustache rested on top of his upper lip, and small, round spectacles adorned his eyes. "You can call me Zacklay. I'm the lead investigator for this accident."

"Eren," Eren said. When the man quirked an oddly thin brow, Eren added, "Jaeger."

"Eren Jaeger," Zacklay repeated, jotting that down. Eren wondered idly if the man had spelt his surname correctly. "Eren, what was your role on this flight?"

"I was helping Marco fly," Eren said. He pointed at Marco, who was still receiving medical attention.

"So you are a licensed pilot, then?"

"Yes, sir."

Zacklay wrote something on his notepad, reading over it before speaking to Eren again. "I'm sure you can understand that this is just a formality, Eren. The first cause of an accident we have to rule out is pilot error, so that will be the first cause we will be investigating. Do you understand?"

Suddenly, Eren's heart began to beat hard against his sternum. The teen swallowed thickly as he answered Zacklay in a small voice, confirming that he'd understood what the man had just explained to him. Fear began to trickle through his veins as the consequences of being found guilty of being the cause of the accident came to his mind. This could leave a permanent red mark on his license. Or worse yet, he could get his license suspended. Or even worse, he could be banned from ever flying again.

"Until we have cleared you, you will be grounded, do you understand?" Zacklay asked.

The color drained from Eren's face. Grounded? That meant that he wouldn't be allowed to fly. This would set back his progress significantly…_shit_, Eren thought. What would Wings Aviation say if they knew one of their cadets were being investigated as the cause of an air crash? Would he lose his sponsorship? Would they make him pay them back? Would they refuse to pay his lodging and allowance during the investigation? Where would he stay then? How long would this investigation take anyway?

"Eren?" Zacklay pushed. He was not a patient man and that was obvious in his tone.

Eren swallowed hard. "Yes, sir. I understand."

"Good." Zacklay looked at Eren down his nose. "Which one of you were in control at the time of the accident?"

"I was," Eren answered without missing a beat.

"Were you flying from the left seat or the right seat?"

_Shit_, Eren thought. Suddenly he wondered if it was even legal to fly from the right seat. He'd never heard of it being illegal, per se, but still…

"Yes, sir," he confessed. Best answer honestly – the investigation would undoubtedly uncover the truth and in any case, if he was found guilty as the cause of the accident, his position within the aircraft would be the least of his concerns.

Once again, Zacklay's pen was on his notepad. Eren watched anxiously as the man wrote for much longer than he had previously written. This made Eren nervous that his confession had sparked the investigator's intrigue and the man was now writing down questions he could fire at the young pilot when Eren was being formally questioned. After a long moment of taking notes, Zacklay looked back up at Eren.

"Alright. I need to see your license and medical, and I need your contact details as well as your operator's details."

After Eren had given the man his license and medical as well as his and the school's contact details, the man isolated Marco and questioned the freckled man as well. After a few minutes, their session concluded with a handshake and Marco was on his way back to Eren, who was still eying the red chopper, albeit with less ferocity. While Marco was being questioned, Eren began to wonder how they were going to get back to Karanese. Since he had never been in an accident before (thankfully) he wasn't aware of the protocol.

Now that both pilots were free to return home, they hovered around aimlessly, neither asking the obvious question until Marco looked up and saw the chopper pilot on the phone while staring intently at himself and Eren. After a short while, the man gestured for Marco to come, and Marco nudged Eren's shoulder gently to get the brunette's attention. Eren immediately turned to glare at the chopper, and upon seeing the pilot beckon them with his fingers as if they were his cheap entertainment had Eren's hands balled into fists at his side.

"What does that asshole want with us now?" Eren hissed.

"Uh, Eren," Marco said in a ghostly voice, "I don't mean to be funny but…I think he's our ride back…"

Eren froze. All the anger at being summoned like an animal completely left his as the color drained from his face. He stared at the raven, who now wore a devious and, dare he say, _victorious _smirk on that perfect face as the man watched Eren with an uncomfortably predatory gaze. The brunette swallowed hard as the inescapable reality crashed down on him.

"You have GOT to be kidding me…"

* * *

><p>Seeing the object of his desire strapping himself up in his very own helicopter with surprisingly dextrous fingers had the millionaire's body alight with excitement and delight as a sense of primal achievement resonated within him. After promising himself that he would claim Eren Jaeger no matter what, Levi had taken it upon himself to ensure the brat arrived safely in Karanese, furthering the boy's debt to him and thus securing at least one date with the teen.<p>

Call it pathetic, but Levi reckoned it was simply strategizing.

"I'm sure you brats know about aviation safety so there's no need to brief you," Levi said, his voice completely devoid of the excitement he felt inside.

"Yeah," Eren grumbled. "The brace position means shit 'cause if this engine fails we're as good as dead."

Levi growled at this. He shouldn't be surprised by Eren's backhanded comments, given the circumstances surrounding his first encounter with the boy, but it still served to irritate the older man. As sexy as the brat's fiery personality may be, the kid did have a knack of getting under Levi's skin by saying and doing the smallest things. Levi was torn between wanting to kick some respect into the teen or punish that rude mouth in an equally rude manner. The man clenched his jaw and breathed in deeply in a desperate attempt to refocus his attention on the task at hand…he should be concentrating on flying safely, not fucking the obnoxious brat's gorgeous and rude mouth.

"Ever heard of 'auto-rotation', dumbass?" Levi eventually retorted.

"As if that'll do shit," Eren huffed. "Falling slower isn't any better than falling."

"Did you not pass eight grade science or something?" Levi bit back. "The slower you hit the ground, the softer the impact."

Eren turned to glare at the raven as if to say 'are you fucking serious?' It pleased the man immensely to see those oceanic eyes focused solely on him, even if the emotion within them was one of anger and irritation. Oh, but how Levi loved that fiery anger and that childish irritation swirling in those depthless green eyes that were fixed on his own eyes. He could only imagine how those eyes would look fogged over in lust, or rolled back into the brat's skull in pure ecstasy.

_This is getting out of hand_, Levi thought, but he held the teen's gaze. As much as Eren's hard glare was awakening parts of Levi that were definitely not supposed to be awake during flight, the man's pride would not let him back down from a mere teenager.

The two men stared at each other for a long time as the rotors came to life above them, and Levi had to admit that he was impressed with how well the brat was holding his glare. Not many people had the balls to keep his eyes for this long, especially while holding a challenge in their own. It made the man wonder just what else Eren was capable of taking.

Little did Levi know that Eren was ready to piss his pants and was only holding the man's gaze so boldly because his own pride refused to let him drop his eyes.

Eventually it all got too much for Eren and he dropped his eyes. They weren't going to get anywhere if he kept staring at the man who was supposed to be flying, and despite the mesmerizing yet horrifically frightening grey orbs the man had in his head, Eren ha to tear his gaze away – he felt as though Levi was beginning to take the very life from him as the man stared with unfaltering focus.

Eren surrendered to the man with a sigh. He had bitten back a barrage of insults from the second he'd found out that this particular asshole would be the one to deliver him back to Karanese, and the brunette had outright refused until the man had cunningly used Eren's very friends against him to win his cooperation…how did this man even know Armin and Mikasa? Oh yes, he'd explained that he is friends with Erwin, and Erwin had been at the airport along with Mikasa and Armin since the accident had been reported this morning.

What a damn small world.

Eren had eventually agreed to the lift, leaving Marco to express enough gratitude for the both of them while Eren did nothing but brood silently. Eren wouldn't let his feelings for Levi be known just yet, oh no…the boy was waiting for the opportune moment (which was definitely _not _while their lives were in the man's hands) to give the man a good kick to the head, which wouldn't be hard to reach given the man's height (or lack thereof). Eren snickered quietly at the thought, imagining just how satisfying it would be to _finally _be able to release months of pent up frustration.

The brunette watched from the corner of his eye as Levi got the helicopter airborne, hovering for a few seconds while making a radio call before proceeding straight towards Karanese using a GPS. Upon hearing the man speak through his own headset, Eren could confirm for certain that this was indeed the man that had plagued his short flying career. But despite his irritation, Eren had to admit that it was impressive to watch the man handle the aircraft – all his movements were fluid and purposeful despite him not using a checklist, and he was entirely focused on the task at hand, completely ignoring his passengers as he maneuvered the aircraft.

He may be an asshole, but Levi was definitely a damn good pilot.

After a few minutes, Eren looked back and found Marco sleeping comfortably in the backseat. Eren wasn't surprised by this although he was annoyed that Marco had now left him by himself in the midst of the enemy's territory. Eren stole a glance at Levi and saw that the man was staring straight ahead, face unreadable thanks to the obnoxious pair of silver sunglasses over his eyes. They were the type of sunglasses typically worn by spies and secret service agents in the movies, except they weren't black.

With an inaudible growl, Eren focused his attention outside. They were flying thousands of feet lower than Eren was used to – or comfortable with – flying, which was both terrifying and exciting. Not a single detail of the landscape went unnoticed as they flew by, from the tiny farm roads on private properties to the livestock and their herders in the fields. It was a new experience to be seeing the world from this altitude, and Eren had to admit that there was a certain beauty to low flying, just as there was to flying at teen thousand feet. But the teen would _never_ admit this out loud, especially not to the man piloting this aircraft.

"Not bad, huh?" the man suddenly said.

The man's voice was deep and smooth, much like it had always been over the months that Eren had heard it over the radio. What Eren hadn't noticed before was how gentle the man's voice was. It was a subtle undertone, and for a second Eren wasn't sure if he was imagining it or not, but either way, it had caught the teen's attention.

"Not _too_ bad," Eren admitted, keeping his eyes outside.

He didn't see the man smirk because he wasn't looking. And even if he was looking, he wouldn't have seen those stormy eyes roaming up and down Eren's body, knowing exactly what was underneath the layers of clothes Eren wore. Levi bit his bottom lip and tore his gaze from the perfect body beside him, breathing in deeply but quietly as he refocused his attention on the path ahead. Thinking of that brat now would only lead to problems. Besides, he was sure he would see Eren again. Soon.

Levi knew Eren would be his. It was only a matter of time.

* * *

><p>After waiting a grueling three hours, Mikasa and Armin were finally informed that Eren had arrived. They were also told that he had to go to hospital for a few scans to confirm that he hadn't sustained any serious or lasting injuries, and would be transported to the hospital straight from the helipad in a waiting ambulance. Because of this, the two teens were granted access to the area so that they could at least see their friend before he was whisked off to hospital.<p>

Armin, Mikasa and Erwin all made their way to the helipad in a golf cart driven by none other than Pixis. As they neared the helipad, the first thing Armin noted about the red helicopter as its rotors bled off their momentum was the registration – LAH seemed awfully familiar, and he was sure he'd seen or at least heard it before. He made a mental note to ask Eren about it later, but right now he simply wanted to focus on the fact that his childhood friend was finally here.

When Eren hopped out of the helicopter, Mikasa's breath caught and the girl hurled herself from the moving golf cart. Not one of the men accompanying her had even a millisecond to protest before the girl was on her feet and sprinting to the brunette, calling his name out frantically as she closed the last few meters between them. Eren turned to Mikasa and smiled as she collided with him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a near-chokehold as he gingerly wrapped his armed around her waist.

"Oh, Eren!" Mikasa cried out, her face buried in the crook of Eren's neck. She breathed in deeply, drinking in the scent she was so scared she would never smell again. "You're okay! Oh…I'm so happy, Eren. I'm so damn happy that you're alive…"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Eren joked. He pulled away from Mikasa to place a chaste kiss on her cheek before looking her dead in the eye, his hands still on her arms. "I wouldn't die _that_ easily."

Mikasa laughed weakly and slapped Eren softly on his arm before falling against his chest, embracing him once again. She closed her eyes as she listened to Eren's heartbeat, pleased to hear its rhythmic pounding clearly in Eren's chest.

When Levi saw the familiar girl embracing Eren she was the teen's lover, his lip curled in disgust and his eyes turned murderous. He immediately recognized the girl as the same one that had accompanied Eren to the safety meeting where the man had first laid eyes on the ten, wearing the same scarf a she tailed the brunette like a lost puppy. The intimacy of their embrace immediately had Levi wondering if the girl was perhaps Eren's girlfriend, but as quickly as the thought came, a new one came as well: he didn't care.

No matter the obstacle, Levi would claim Eren.

It was no longer a desire. It had become a vow.

He watched for a moment longer than he needed to, rage boiling hot inside him as Eren's large hands gently caressed the girl's back while whispering whatever shit teens talk about into her ear. The raven clenched his fists and bit his tongue, tearing his gaze away from the intimate display of affection before his anger and jealousy got the better of him and he ripped the female off what he had already decided is _his_.

"Levi," a familiar voice called, cutting into his thoughts.

Levi shifted his gaze to see a familiar figure walking towards him with a warm smile and piercing blue eyes. Had Levi not been grateful for the distraction, he would've cursed Erwin and turned away before the man could even say another word.

"Good to have you back safely," Erwin said with a smile. "Thank you for all you have done for them. I am indebted to you." He held out a hand in greeting, but Levi just scoffed at this.

"Yes you fucking are," Levi spat. He glanced at Eren quickly and was immensely relived to see the brunette no longer hanging onto that female. Instead, Eren had his arm slung loosely around a blonde boy's shoulder, and Levi was none too pleased about that. "That brat is an ungrateful little shit."

Erwin's smile widened at Levi's words and he looked over to Eren, who was undoubtedly recalling the events on his accident to his friends and Pixis. The brunette's eyes were wide as he spoke, his free arm swinging about as he spoke to his friends. "He's quite something, isn't he?"

"Yes. That something is 'ungrateful'."

"Oh, come on, Levi. You got the boy into your favorite toy, what's there to be so uptight about?"

"He didn't fucking say 'thank you' the little shit."

Erwin chuckled. "I'm sure he will once his friends have been pacified."

"Whatever."

Erwin studied Levi as the raven stared at Eren with a mixture of anger and lust in his eyes. It was undeniably clear that Levi had fixated on the boy in much the same manner as he had fixated on his previous lover, and while Erwin, as Levi's friend, didn't want the man to put himself out there to such an extreme again, he couldn't help but feel optimistic for the way he knew his friend felt about the young man named Eren Jaeger. Levi would have the boy in bed before he admitted it out loud, but Erwin could see the desire to own Eren practically emanating from Levi's skin.

Levi wanted Eren. There was no denying that.

Erwin was brought out of his quiet observations by the devil himself as he came to stand in front of Levi, standing a couple of inches taller than the raven-haired man. Levi lifted his gaze to meet Eren's with clear annoyance, but the teen kept his own despite being uncomfortable with the entirety of the situation.

"So uh," Eren started, rubbing the back of his neck. Levi bit his lip subtly as he watched the boy's toned bicep flex. "I just wanted to say thanks. For, you know…"

"Saving your ass?" Levi interjected. His mind was racing towards the gutters again, and he had to keep his composure.

Eren scowled, unimpressed. "Yes."

Levi smirked. He liked to see Eren doing things the teen wouldn't ordinarily do. Levi quickly deduced that Eren wasn't one to dish out thanks, and knowing the boy's attitude towards helicopter pilots, this entire ordeal must've been incredibly embarrassing for him. Erwin noticed Levi's devilish smirk but said nothing of it, busying himself on his phone as the two pilots continued their exchange. He would talk to Levi about Eren over drinks later.

"It's a pleasure," Levi said. The man dug into his pocket and pulled out a sleek, silver business-card holder, opening it and whipping out a business card before holding it out for Eren. "Here's my card…if you _really_ want to say thanks, give me a call…"

Levi's voice was laced with seduction as he purred the words that held the brunette in place like a deer caught in headlights. The teen stared for an embarrassingly long period of time before he snatched the card rather rudely from between Levi's fingers, muttering a half-hearted 'thanks' before dashing off to the safety of his friends. Levi chuckled as the image of Eren's wide oceanic eyes boring into his burnt into his memory, and the man knew without a doubt that he had one foot in the door.

"You know," Erwin said, bringing Levi out of what was sure to be an inappropriate fantasy, "I think the kid likes you."

Levi smirked. "It doesn't matter, Smith. Once I get my hands on him, he's going to _love_ me."

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for reading! Unfortunately the chapters may posted at a slower rate for the foreseeable future since 2015 JUST GOT REAL! But please follow and review as your support is GREATLY appreciated and I love to please. Make demands oh master, woof :P<strong>


	7. Chapter 7: I have macaroni

**A/N: Salutations, my dearies. First and foremost, once again a big thanks for the continued support, and for sticking with it this far. To those who have reviewed, followed and favorited, a special big thank you!**

**As I've said in the AN in the previous chapter, the updates may become more sporadic in the future and once again I apologize for this. Unfortunately, this isn't my primary employment so I am unable to post as frequently as I like. But rest assured, several chapters are written and just waiting to be edited and subsequently posted in due time!**

**Enjoy this little continuation of the most insistent part of my imagination!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan, its characters or any of the brands that may be mentioned in this story.**

* * *

><p>A whole week had gone by and not one call had come from the one person Levi wanted to hear from. Though he had not expected Eren to call immediately, he definitely didn't think the brat was ungrateful enough to not call at all. Regardless of how Eren may feel towards Levi, or all helicopter pilots for that matter, manners are manners. While the man was angry at Eren for not bothering to call, the thing that angered Levi the most was the fact that he was angry in the first place. He was absolutely livid because he'd become obsessed with a stupid, inconsequential teenage brat that had no manners.<p>

At first, Levi was on edge because every time his phone buzzed he expected it to be a certain brunette. The constant disappointment eventually played its course out into irritation and eventually infuriation, and by the end of the week, the man was absolutely unbearable. By Wednesday he'd turned off his cell and chucked it into the darkest part of his closet simply to prevent himself from smashing the device in a fit of rage if one more caller proved to be anyone other than Eren.

Levi was fairly certain that the entire situation would've been more bearable had it not been for one crucial fact: he had seen Eren naked and the image of that perfect, tanned body had been imprinted into his mind. Not only was Levi yearning to see it again, but he was unable to stop thinking about it every waking second. The man had gone so far as neglecting his work because of his constant fantasizing and incessant obsessing over the teen, and instead opted to spend an unnecessary amount of time at the airport in the hopes of running into Eren. It was to no avail; Eren hadn't been at the airport once during the times Levi was there. This left Levi with undirected anger and mounting sexual frustration that was beginning to drive the man insane.

So insane, in fact, that he called Hanji for a night out in the hopes of finding someone who could act as a substitute for what he couldn't lay his hands on just yet. He needed to find a release, and what better way to do that than to go out and find someone who he could bed?

Getting Hanji on board to entertain him was the easy part. Getting Hanji to go to a place he wanted to go to was a whole other war. Between the radio calls of incoming and outgoing aircraft, Hanji expertly argued with Levi without losing track of a single aircraft, never missing a beat and not once getting tongue tied despite the speed at which she spoke. Levi was so astounded by Hanji's world-class display of multitasking that the man had been completely disarmed.

And that is when Hanji struck.

As Levi stood under the lukewarm stream of water in the shower, he racked his mind trying to pinpoint the exact moment he agreed to go to a cheap sports bar. Absolutely nothing about cheap pubs interested him in the slightest: they were disgustingly filthy, noisy, attracted hoards of aggressive men and slutty women, and if they even stocked a whiskey that had an age in the double digits it was considered miracle. The last time Levi had drunk a crappy ten year old whiskey was when he was still underage and probably couldn't afford anything better.

The worst part about the entire idea was that there was a massive rugby game being screened at the pub, which would add to the aforementioned undesirable characteristics of a cheap pub.

"Tch. What have I gotten myself into?"

But since Levi had agreed, he couldn't back out now. Being a man of his word meant honoring every arrangement and agreement despite the repercussions – although usually he would take the repercussions into account _before_ making any sort of agreement. This just proved to Levi how distracted he had become, and how desperately he needed to blow off some steam.

He gritted his teeth as he imagined the ways in which Eren could help him blow off steam.

He could imagine his fingers running through that thick, chocolate hair as Eren's mouth enveloped his cock, those sweet, pink lips wrapping around the base of his shaft as he fucked the brunette's throat. Maybe even on the ground on all fours, ass propped up as his hands hold those slim hips while he pounds into the teen's tight heat.

"Fuck…"

Levi groaned and turned the water to its coldest setting to douse his arousal lest he start doing things to himself that would make him stand up Hanji.

Actually, that didn't sound like such a bad idea.

* * *

><p>All Eren wanted to do was go out with his friends. The past week had been a long and depressing one filled with interviews with investigators who seemed hell-bent on proving him guilty. His self-esteem had taken quite a knock with the incessant questioning and the brunette found himself questioning his ability and desire to fly despite having perfect grades in all his air exercises. He even skipped out on the entire week of ground school because he was unable to keep himself from moping and he didn't want the other pilots to see him so down.<p>

But when Eren phoned Armin to invite him over for a guy's night, Armin politely declined the invitation, saying that he had a test to study for. Eren couldn't fathom why the university would make students write tests on Saturday _evenings_ of all times, but he accepted the reason nonetheless and wished his friend good luck. Mikasa was also unable to hang out with Eren because she had some or other sporting event early the following morning, but she promised to come by the evening after on condition that she could sleep over and she had full authority over what movies they watched. Eren happily agreed, glad to have something to do on Saturday at least.

But what of Friday? Marco had Jean over, so there was no way in hell Eren would go anywhere near those two. Reiner was working. And…Eren sighed as he realized just how small his social circle actually was. Sure, he had many friends, but they all lived on the other side of the city and they weren't really people he would go out of his way to see. Besides, he didn't want anyone he didn't consider a best friend to see him in his state of near-depression.

So Eren begrudgingly accepted that he was destined to spend the night alone. He was about to make his way to the store to buy a box of cheap wine and rent a crappy horror movie when his boss phoned. One of his colleagues had called in sick with a stomach bug and the boss desperately needed a waiter to help out. Eren usually worked the bar but with the big game on, they needed all the hands they could get to help on the floor. With nothing better to do with his night, Eren quickly agreed to help out and was at the pub, dressed and ready to work in less than thirty minutes.

Eren was more than happy for the distraction. With the whole establishment this busy, there was no way in hell he would be able to catch a break for even one minute, and the teen liked the idea of that. The less time he spent idling, the less time he had to mull about things he had absolutely no control over. Besides, nights like this were the nights that brought in the best tips – not only did every single person in the bar want to drink as much as possible to have fun while watching sport, but the men usually threw their money around in a bid to impress women. It may be hard work, running up and down like a slave, but the tips would be worth it in the end.

Eren was about to take an order from a table he just knew would tip well at the end of the night when he was approached by his colleague and friend, Reiner. He excused himself from the table and stood a little ways off, Reiner huddling close to speak in the noisy environment.

"What, Reiner?" Eren snapped.

"Switch sections with me?" Reiner begged. Eren just stared at the burly blonde as if he didn't comprehend a word coming out of the man's mouth. Reiner sighed in exasperation before explaining. "I'm not feeling too hot today and the smoke in there is killing me." Reiner gestured to the smoking section. He usually worked the smoking section because most of the heavy drinkers and generous tippers resided there. It was affectionately known as the golden area amongst the bar's staff, and working there was a strictly first-come-first-serve.

"You sure?" Eren asked. His night had just gotten exponentially better. For a few hundred bucks, he wouldn't mind suffering through the blanket of second-hand smoke hanging in the air.

"Yeah, please, dude." Reiner looked embarrassed. "Just for tonight, man. I'll owe you one."

_No need!_ Eren sang internally as he thought of the excess tips he'd earn. "Sure thing."

The brunette hurried over to the smoking section, keen to make a good impression on the customers in an attempt to hustle bigger tips. Drunk people responded well to favoritism and perky personalities, and if there was one thing the brunette was good at, it was pretending to like people. Although he did enjoy his job, he hated how irritating drunkards could get…but he never complained because he knew when he drank, he was another story entirely.

As soon as Eren stepped into the smoking section, he froze. The sight of Mr Smith sitting comfortable with Hanji, the air traffic controller, was odd in its own rights. But to see _Levi_ – the short, annoying, disrespectful Robinson pilot who just so happened to save Eren's life – sitting with them was downright mind-numbing. The man looked horribly out of place in the sports bar, wearing a light grey button-up shirt and form-fitting designer denims, as opposed to Hanji's team T-shirt and jeans. And even outside of the helicopter he looked like a douchebag: he sat with his elbows precariously perched on the table top as if it were riddled with diseases, his fingers delicately encircling a beer bottle, dangling from his fingers as if he wanted nothing to do with the beverage. He stared blankly ahead as if he was oblivious to the fact that he had company, chin jutted slightly out as if he were purposefully trying to accentuate his perfect jawline.

Suddenly, Eren was not so keen on serving this section. The last person he wanted to see just happened to be sitting a few meters in front of him, being the douchebag Eren has come to know over the months of random radio encounters. Suddenly, the idea of walking up to Levi, as a _waiter_, made the brunette's palms become clammy and his heart beat faster in his chest. What if the man saw him as even _less_ of a human being than he already did? Levi already called Eren a brat…would this not just add to that? Would this make Levi look down on the teen even more? But why would he? Would the fact that Eren had a job not impress Levi? Not many students and teenagers these days bothered with finding jobs if they had free time, so didn't this just go to show that Eren was ambitious and had his head screwed on the right way?

_Wait. Why do I care?_

Eren drew a sharp breath and scowled as he realized the tornado of questions swarming in his mind were all centered on what Levi would think of him. Why should he care? He didn't know Levi at all – the only thing he knew about the man was that despite his rotten attitude he was actually _human_ purely because he'd landed at a crash site to check if he could be of any assistance. Which he was. By saving Eren and Marco.

_Damn_.

"Eeerrreeeeeen!"

His head snapped up when he heard the familiarity of the melody of his name. There was only one person on the planet that sang his name like it was a hit single every time she greeted him. He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face when he saw Hanji excitedly waving at him, just like he couldn't help the sudden uneasy knot in his stomach when he noticed Levi staring at him with predatory focus as Hanji beckoned him over.

The man's eyes were trained on Eren as the brunette walked over to the table, and Eren was hyper-aware of this. He felt like he was an animal being sized up for auction with the way the man's piercing gaze held his advancing form. For the first time ever, Eren had to physically concentrate on not falling while walking. If he weren't so nervous, he would've berated himself for acting like an unsteady one year old on his feet simply because some douchebag couldn't keep his eyes off him.

But, nervous or not, Eren held his head high and refused to let it show just how intimidated he was.

"Hey Hanji," Eren said cheerfully when he got to the table. He smiled and nodded at the unknown female before turning to Erwin. "Hello, Mr Smith." His eyes went to Levi and his smile faltered slightly. "Hi."

"Is that the way to greet the man that saved your life, you shitty brat?" Levi barked. His words were laced with venom and his tone was frightening enough to whip the brunette into submission, but those sharp, grey eyes had a playful glint in them. Eren swallowed hard, fighting the instinct to flinch back

"H-hey, Levi," Eren said so softly that only Levi could hear.

Eren could've sworn he saw a dangerous glint of satisfaction flash in the man's eyes for just a nanosecond before the man sat back in his chair, an extremely pleased look plastered on his face. He held Eren's gaze for a second longer than what was socially acceptable, making the boy's stomach turn upside down, before turning his attention to his near-empty beer bottle.

"Ah! You two know each other?" Hanji cried out. Neither of them answered and Hanji didn't seem to care. Her attention was already on something else. "Petra, this is Eren. He's such a cutie, isn't he? He's a cadet pilot that Erwin hand-selected for Wings Aviation!"

"Wow!" Petra whispered, her bright eyes on Eren.

"I wouldn't exactly say 'hand-picked'…" Eren said, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

Hanji snorted. "Don't be so modest, Eren!" At that, Erwin let out a small chuckle. "Anyway! How are you feeling after your little mishap last weekend? It must've been so scary! Are you seeing a psychologist? I know a great psychologist if you need one! Oh, but I see you didn't break anything, which is good. Ah, the joys of youth."

Eren listened patiently as Hanji rambled on. He was not unused to this; he often visited the control tower to observe the happenings of the airport when he had nothing better to do with himself. Hanji and he would always engage in enlightening conversations about all sorts of things, although Eren regarded them more as Hanji's monologues than actual conversations.

"Do you want to do some shots with us?" Hanji continued. "I think that's a great idea. You must be in desperate need of letting lose. Poor thing, look at you. You're all tense. Nothing a good few tequilas won't fix, hey!?"

"Hanji, you're forgetting my boss is sitting right here," Eren said, gesturing to Erwin. "I can't exactly get wasted in front of him. Besides, I'm still working."

It wasn't uncommon for waiters to drink on the job. One way to secure tips was to have fun with the customers, and fun in a bar means shots. Lots and lots of shots. The owner didn't mind as long as the shots were paid for and the waiters could still perform their duties. Most of the waiters knew how to handle their alcohol anyway, and Eren was no exception. He may get rowdy when wasted, but when just drunk he was actually relatively functional. Relatively being the operative word.

"We're both off duty," Erwin said, winking at Eren. Levi stiffening at the gesture didn't go unnoticed by Erwin, who smirked deviously at his friend's reaction. "And Hanji is right, for once…you need to relax, Eren."

"Alright," Eren said happily. How right they all were. Just an hour ago he was planning on drinking at home by himself, just to unwind a little. How sad. "Five tequilas then?"

"Make that four," Petra said softly. "I'm driving."

"Oh, just one!" Hanji whined before turning right back to Eren. "Five shots, honey. Then Petra and Smithy can be excused from the festivities."

"Sure, coming right up!" Eren turned and walked off before he could see the smirk on Levi's face.

The man watched the object of his obsession walk away, or more accurately watched the _ass_ of the object of his obsession until it was no longer in view, thinking that his night just got a whole lot more interesting. Although he would _never_ admit it to her, he was suddenly extremely grateful for Hanji's insistence on visiting this grimy pub.

* * *

><p>Sometime around one in the morning, an hour after Eren's shift had ended, and several hours since his sobriety ended, the teen found himself walking (more like stumbling) across the parking lot with Hanji and her friends. The brunette knew he was in no condition to get himself home even if he stayed just a few kilometers from the bar, and had decided that he would walk home if he couldn't find a lift. Walking at one AM while drunk seems like an okay thing to do, right?<p>

Drunk logic. It's flawless.

"Aaaah!" Hanji suddenly cried out, throwing her arm around Eren. "Can you believe that the night is actually over? I was having fun! I want more!"

Levi whirled around then, blocking Eren and Hanji's path. The two brunettes came to an abrupt and unsteady stop and gazed quizzically at the fuming raven-haired man before them as he stood with his arms folded across his chest. His eyes were dangerous and his brows furrowed over them created a dark shadow that made the man look menacing, lethal even, as he stood before them.

Even in his drunken state, Eren could sense the danger. His stomach began to knot again, but it wasn't entirely from fear. There was fear there, yes, but also something else. Anticipation? Excitement? No…it couldn't possibly be excitement. What could possibly be exciting about a short, muscular douchebag glaring dangerously at you in a deserted parking lot in the middle of the night?

"Get. Off. Him." Levi's voice was low and dangerous as he growled at Hanji.

"Eh?" Was Hanji's only reply.

Eren, on the other hand, laughed loudly. It was a curt, boisterous bubble of laughter that rang out across the quiet lot and died down just as quickly as it came. Eren then dropped his eyes to meet Levi's unimpressed glare, challenge clear in those oceanic orbs. Levi gritted his teeth at the sight of the defiance in the teen's eyes, and oh how he wanted to teach that boy how to behave…

"I'm not _yours_," Eren spat, trying to sound serious but failing miserably as his drunken cheerfulness held him in its grasp. "You can't make demands like that."

Levi cocked his head to the side. If there was one thing the man loved, it was a challenge, and the challenge was so clear in Eren's voice the teen may as well have said the words. Unbeknownst to Eren, he had just taken his first step down a path that would lead him to a very different fate to what he imagined.

"Is that so?" Levi challenged.

Instead of answer Levi, Eren completely ignored the man and ripped himself out of Hanji's clutches so that he could look the brunette woman in the eye. Her eyes immediately widened in concern when she saw the pleading look in those innocent green eyes. "Eren? What is it?"

Eren moaned. It wasn't a sexual sound but it was a delectable one and the inebriated millionaire couldn't stop his body's pulsing reaction to the sound. His jaw clenched and his entire body went rigid as the soft sound tore through his body, igniting a burning desire in the man to hear more of that delicious sound. Deeper moans, breathier moans, his own name coming from those lips…

"I want…I want macaroni," Eren whispered. He tilted his head back and looked up at the sky as if the light-polluted blackness held the answers to life's greatest questions. "I really, _really_ want macaroni."

"I have macaroni at my house," Levi immediately offered. Before anyone could protest or even register the movement, Levi grabbed Eren and flung the teen over his shoulder like a small sack of potatoes. "Let's go."

"But my bike!" Eren whined.

"Fuck your bike," Levi barked. He just wanted to get the brat to his house, into his _bed_. _Fuck!_ Levi groaned internally at the prospect of what was to come. "Let's just get you your damn macaroni," _and fuck_ "and worry about your bike tomorrow."

A small part of Levi felt like an extortionist for luring the brunette to his house with the promise of macaroni – which he wasn't even entirely sure he had – but then the larger part of his consciousness reminded him that he was _carrying_ the teen. Nothing about this was an invite. If anything, it was more of a kidnapping. Not that he really cared about the technicalities, of course, he was simply too anxious to see the teen's perfect naked body sprawled on his bed or his living room floor, whichever came first.

Petra and Erwin watched as Levi marched ahead of them with new-found purpose, making a beeline for Hanji's car. The stability in his step and long, strong strides made it look like the man was completely sober, when in fact, he was actually pretty wasted himself. The only thing that gave that away his level of intoxication was the nineteen year old dangling from his shoulders and the fact that he was ignoring the weakly protesting teen.

"Is this a good thing?" Petra wondered out loud.

Erwin didn't answer and instead watched Levi with a fond smile as the short raven threw Eren to the ground unceremoniously before yanking on the locked car doors. He yelled out for someone to 'open the goddamn doors before I break a window', which caused Erwin's smile to widen. It had been years since Erwin had seen Levi behave like this because of another human, and after what happened with the last one, Erwin was convinced he'd never see it again. Yet here it was happening once again – Levi was losing his mind and for once, putting someone above himself. For lack of a better word, Erwin actually found it _cute_. Cute, but frightening. He couldn't help but be concerned about Levi's obsessive nature because of what happened last time.

"Four-eyes!" Levi called out from the car. "Hurry the fuck up! This brat wants maca-fucking-roni!"

_And I want this fucking brat_, Levi added mentally. He licked his lips as he watched Eren struggle to his feet, wondering just how much fight the brat had in him in this state. _Probably not much_, he concluded with a devilish smirk. This would be easy.

Just as the doors unlocked and Levi was about to shove Eren into the backseat of the car, a burly blonde came barreling towards the car with the ferocity of an enraged rhino. Levi's head snapped up as he heard a gruff voice calling Eren's name, instantly setting the man into the mode to protect what's his. He turned towards the blonde and crossed his arms, unafraid of the momentum the large man held as he marched forwards with massive hands balled into fists. If Levi was one to be intimidated, he would've shit his pants and possibly ran, but since nothing could intimidate or frighten the raven, he stood his ground with a mocking quirk of a brow.

"Where the hell do you think you're going with Eren?" the burly blonde growled as he neared Levi.

"To my place," Levi stated.

The blonde's teeth snapped together and a hiss escaped between his teeth, sending small jets of steam shooting from the corners of his mouth owing to the cold night air. As frightening as it looked, Levi was still unperturbed. Petra and Hanji, on the other hand, had stopped a safe distance from what they were sure would turn into a fight.

"Reiner?" Eren called from behind Levi.

As Reiner was about to step around Levi to retrieve Eren, the raven's hand came down on the blonde's massive forearm in caution. "Don't. Touch. Him."

Erwin immediately stepped up then. When the blonde, Reiner, yanked his arm out of Levi's grip and stepped forward to tower over the raven, Erwin knew things were about to escalate quickly. Both men glared at each other, challenging one another and daring the other to make the first move. Despite the vast difference in their sizes, Levi stood his ground as the muscular blonde held his own.

"I'm taking him home." Levi's voice was low and his tone was matter-of-fact. Without another word, he turned and ushered Eren into the car. The drunk teen complied eagerly.

A massive hand landed on Levi's shoulder, spinning him back around. "Oh no you don't, you little shi…"

Before the blonde could even finish his sentence, tarmac smacked against his back and expelled all the air from his lungs as his body crashed to the ground. His face scrunched up in pain but he kept his eyes on the looming figure above him. Levi stood over the floored blonde with a leg on either side of his writhing figure, staring down impassively at the man who threatened to steal Eren away just as he was about to get the brat to his house. The older man was about to say something to Reiner when a sudden force pushed him to the side, sending him to the ground a meter away from Reiner.

With a curse hurling from his lips, Levi snapped his head up in time to see Eren straddling Reiner, his face merely inches away from the blonde brute's. Levi's blood turned to ice at the sight of Eren so intimately positioned on top of another man and he was on his feet in one lithe movement. He was about to lunge at the pair to rip Eren off the blonde when a pair of large hands locked him in place in a painful grip.

"Don't." Erwin's voice was stern and full of authority.

"Reiner! Reiner?" Eren called out, slapping Reiner on the cheeks. "Dude! Are you okay?"

"Okay, okay!" Reiner, spat out, lifting his hands to try and defend his face from the ruthless assault. "Dude! Back off! I'm fine."

With a childish giggle, Eren jumped to his feet and extended his hand to assist his friend back up. Wisely, Reiner declined the help of his much smaller friend and brought himself to stand, quickly throwing an arm around Eren's shoulders protectively before sending Levi a glare that would've made the raven flinch if he gave even half a fuck. Levi's eyes narrowed to slits at the physical contact between the two but Erwin's hands pinched his shoulders painfully, holding the man in place.

Levi knew he could easily shrug out of Erwin's grip. Hell, he could take down the giant if he were so inclined to. But the raven held an immense amount of respect for the man who had been his voice of reason in his darker years, and the things the two had gone through together warranted a guarantee that Levi would never defy Erwin. Even drunk, Levi let Erwin hold the authority.

"He's _not_ going home with anyone besides me," Reiner growled.

"Reiner," Eren said with a breathy chuckle, hand over his heart in a dramatic gesture of being touched. "That's so sweet of you."

"He is perfectly fine with me, you overgrown rhino," Levi spat. "I don't think he'll live to see tomorrow with you driving him around in your state."

"In my _state_? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Your state of awesomeness," Eren yawned.

"I mean you're probably wasted, you dumb fuck!" Levi said, raising his voice for the first time.

"Excuse me!" Reiner scoffed. "I am perfectly sober!"

"Gentlemen," Erwin said calmly. Neither one of the enraged males paid him any mind.

"Whatever," Levi spat. "You kids think sober means 'not puking'."

"_What_?" Reiner growled.

"Levi," Erwin cautioned.

"It means that you're probably drunk off your ass and you're going to get him killed. God, don't you understand English?"

"I haven't had a single drink all night, I've been working!"

"Well, so has _he_."

"Levi, calm down!" Erwin snapped. This immediately brought the raven's attention to his friend – Erwin never raised his voice and he certainly never snapped at anyone. Instead of meet Levi's eyes, Erwin turned away and released the man from his grip, leaving a tinge of guilt behind in Levi's gut. Although Levi often pushed those closest to him, it wasn't often that he pushed Erwin to the point where the blonde got upset. And Levi could still count on one hand how many times Erwin had raised his voice during their altercations despite having been friends for well over a decade. With Erwin being the epitome of calm, the few times Levi had caused his older friend to reprimand him like a child inevitably left a sour taste in the raven's mouth.

Hanji appeared beside Levi then, taking hold of him and gently leading him to the car so Erwin could talk to the younger men. Surprisingly, Levi complied with minimum resistance and soon enough, he was seated in the front and strapped up securely to his seat. He watched with brooding eyes as Erwin spoke to the rhino that had stolen his prize.

"Hi there," Erwin said to Reiner. "Sorry about that. How are you?"

Reiner regarded Erwin with hostility, fixing Eren so he could support the brunette who was rapidly losing consciousness. "Look, I don't have time for games. I need to get this guy home before he's too drunk to hold onto me while I drive."

"Alright," Erwin said. It wasn't his place to question the man, so he didn't. It was obvious that Eren knew Reiner and that Reiner was clearly sober. That was enough for Erwin. "Do you know where he stays?"

"Yeah, he's a friend of mine," Reiner said as if it were the most obvious thing. "Follow me if you bloody want to make sure he gets home safe, but I'm not going to hang around here any longer. Come, Eren, let's get you home before you die."

"Hmm," Eren agreed sleepily. "Reiner, I'm hungry."

"What do you want?" Reiner asked as they walked off.

"Macaroni," Eren hummed.

"Fuck you. I'll buy you a cheeseburger."

Eren pouted but didn't protest as the blonde dragged him off. This had become their usual drill if Eren was drunk and Reiner was sober; Reiner would take Eren home on Eren's bike and either stay over and then Eren would take Reiner back to his car in the morning, or someone would tail the duo in Reiner's car so that he could get home after tucking Eren into bed. It was a neat little system but it only ever worked if Reiner was the sober one, which was less often than either of them would like to admit because while Eren enjoyed a good party now and then, Reiner lived to party.

When Levi saw the blonde hauling Eren off, he hissed a curse, cracking the knuckles on his hands. He'd already done enough to piss Erwin off, so running after Eren was definitely out of the question, and that was the _only_ thing keeping him strapped to the seat. But watching the one thing he wanted more than anything being taken away by another man was infuriating. As if his anger wasn't bad enough, his sexual frustration had just increased tenfold now that his guaranteed easy lay had just sauntered off.

As the ladies filed into the car, Erwin popped his head in through the window beside Levi.

"Levi?" Erwin tried.

"What?" Levi snapped.

Erwin sighed. As cute as Levi was, he was also frustrating and impossible. But Erwin was surprised at how obedient Levi had been during the altercation given his level of intoxication, which was an immense relief. Erwin couldn't deny that he was a little more than concerned about the rapid development of Levi's feelings for what was effectively still a stranger to the man, but now was not the time to discuss it all. When they were both well-rested and Levi was sober, he would confront his friend. Getting into fights with strangers because of his possessive nature was just not on, and if there was anyone who could safely bring the inappropriateness of Levi's behavior to light, it was definitely Erwin.

"Relax. That kid is a friend of Eren and will ensure Eren gets home safely."

"But Eren is _mine_," Levi snarled. He sounded more animal than man. "_I'm_ the one that's supposed to make sure he's safe."

"Not yet, my friend," Erwin said with a heavy sigh. "Not yet."

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><p><strong>Aaaaaand that's a wrap. For chapter 7 at least. I hope you enjoyed that and please do follow and review etc etc because this, my dear friends, is just the beginning.<strong>

**Once again, sorry for the wait and the waits that are still to come, but I assure you I will post as often as I possibly can.**


	8. Chapter 8: A Date With Eren And Lexy

**A/N: Since I've already apologized in advance for the upcoming sporadic updates, I'm not going to apologize again because no one wants to hear me whine about the story of my life. At least I'm consistently inconsistent, give me that, geez!**

**Well, here we are, chapter 8 already. Wow. Thanks a million to all my readers, I hope you're enjoying the story so far. To those who followed and favorited, thanks a BILLION! And a SPECIAL SHOUT-OUT to my reviewers (you know who you are sweeties). The support is great and I hope the story continues to uhm...make you feel whatever it was making you feel up until this point (especially if it's addiction).**

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own SNK, its characters or any other brands mentioned in this story. I wish.**

**Enjoy.**

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><p>The day after a binge drinking spree was always exceptionally painful for Eren, and this Saturday was no different. Luckily he had no commitments for the day, unlike the last time he'd had a rough night out; he shuddered at the memory of the pain he suffered enduring that godawful exam in a state similar to this. Today, however, Eren decided to just waste his day in bed recovering. As he drifted in and out of sleep, the brunette tried to fill in the few blanks in his memory. The sporadic lapses of memory didn't bother the brunette since he knew that it was Reiner that had put him to bed, which was the most important thing in his mind: as long as he could remember how he got home and who put him in bed, Eren was satisfied that he hadn't gone too far overboard. And clearly remembering Reiner's mothering from the night before, or rather from the ungodly hours of this morning, Eren didn't bother much with the other details of the night. Aside from his cadet recruiter encouraging him to consume an unhealthy amount of shooters, nothing about the night seemed out of the ordinary.<p>

After sleeping most of the day away, Eren woke feeling moderately better. He fixed himself a massive, strangely healthy sandwich and wolfed it down before heading to the shower. A cool shower usually did wonders to his state after a night out. While undressing, Eren found his mind wandering to Levi for some or other unknown reason. Too groggy to truly ponder why or even be disturbed by the fact that he was thinking about the egotistical douchebag while getting naked, Eren let his thoughts wander. The thoughts swam through Eren's mind as he stepped into the shower and leaned against the cold wall, letting the cool water rain down on him to wash away the filth of inebriation.

_What is Levi doing today? Is he hung over or is he one of those people who don't get hangovers? He doesn't look like the type to get hangovers…lucky him. I wonder if he likes hot or cold showers. He looked like he likes them cold. Everything about him looks cold. I wonder why he's like that? He's so…weird. Something is seriously off about him. What does he do for a living anyway? I bet he's a coroner…_

The teen finally caught up with his mind, and when he realized he'd been thinking of Levi while in the shower, he snapped himself upright, nearly falling to the ground because of the sudden movement, and immediately busied himself. With an unimpressed and humorless laugh, Eren promptly set to washing himself, eager to get his mind busy lest he continue wondering about the strange man that had showed up in his life so suddenly.

_Is there any other way to show up in someone's life?_

Once he looked, smelt and felt human again, Eren headed to the airport to visit the control tower. He vaguely remembered Hanji mentioning that she would be at work today, and even if she wasn't, Eren would rather spend the day watching and listening to air traffic than risking his mind wandering again. If not Levi then Eren was sure his mind would wander to what had brought the man into his life in the first place – his accident. The last thing he wanted to do today was think about how he managed to write off a perfectly functional aircraft.

Just as Eren had hoped, Hanji was indeed on duty. After climbing dozens of stairs to reach the top of the tallest building on the massive airport property, Hanji was quick to buzz Eren in and greet him with the same singing tune she always used when she called his name. Her eyes were sparkling and full of life as she welcomed Eren into her domain, her energetic demeanor giving absolutely no indication that she'd been out drinking the night before.

_How does she do that_? Eren wondered. He could have six beers and he'd wake up groggy and in a mood that would chase Satan off. After the amount Hanji had drunk last night, Eren was surprised the woman was even alive.

"Eren!" Hanji scolded. "You look so tired!"

"Yeah, I was pretty wasted last night," Eren admitted with a smile. He sat himself down on the seat the ground controller, Moblit, would usually occupy and looked around. Hanji was alone today, which wasn't uncommon on weekends when the air traffic flow was low. "I don't know how you're functioning right now. Since when have you been on duty?"

"Since twelve," Hanji said. Eren knew it was nearly five so Hanji would probably be working until the airport closed at eight. "And as for how I can function, I've come up with a little concoction that reduces the alcohol in the bloodstream and simultaneously re-hydrates a person, thus eliminating the possibility of a hangover."

"Came up with?" Eren questioned.

"Yip!" Hanji beamed. "I made it all by myself. Granted, it tastes a bit foul but it's still a prototype. I'm sure I can make it more palatable."

Eren laughed. How one woman could be so dedicated to her work and her love for science and still have endless amounts of energy was truly beyond the teen. But as baffling as it was, it was truly inspiring. Hanji was living proof that regardless of one's career, there will always be time for hobbies and the likes. And with the enthusiasm and energy that tackled both her career and her blooming passion for all things science related, the woman was nothing short of an idol for Eren. Granted, the teen had once or twice suspected Hanji's energy reserved to be in constant credit due to cocaine, but the brunette knew Hanji better; the woman wouldn't come within ten miles of any drug if she could help it.

Just then, a familiar beating sound crackled through the radio as a pilot on the frequency depressed their PTT button. Eren's jaw clenched – the thing he hated most about helicopters was the poor quality of their transmissions: most of the time, the rotor blades could be heard beating away in the background, muffling the pilot's voice to the extent that some transmissions weren't even readable. And those idiots wondered why fixed-wing pilots hated them so.

"_Karanese, Lima Alpha Hotel_."

Eren's breath caught at the sound of that familiar voice. His undivided attention was on the radio now, keen to hear more of that velvety baritone.

"Lima Alpha Hotel, go ahead."

A small smiled played on the brunette's lips as he watched Hanji search the skies to the north through binoculars. It amazed him how she could switch from mad, rambling scientist to professional air traffic controller in the blink of an eye. Eren wouldn't deny that it often made him wonder if the woman was not perhaps schizophrenic, but he didn't dare ask lest he be thrust into a conversation about psychological disorders that would never come to an end. He got more than enough medical talk when around Armin, he didn't need that noise to follow him to his sanctuary as well.

"_Hanji, I want to land._"

Hanji laughed before responding. "How the hell do you have a radio licence, Levi? You're cleared inbound four thousand six hundred feet or below, QNH is the same as when you left. Report ready to cross the active."

Levi clicked his PTT button twice in acknowledgement of his instructions, causing Hanji to laugh again. She turned to Eren and said, "This man is unbelievable, isn't he?"

"Bloody arrogant is what he is!" Eren snapped. _Unbelievable and arrogant but…kind of cool_. Eren would _never_ have the guts to talk over the radio like that in controlled airspace. Even in uncontrolled airspace, he kept his broadcasts professional just as he was taught when still training.

Hanji cried out in laughter. "Well, he did almost kidnap you last night so why are we even surprised by _this_?"

"K-kidnap?"

The teen's mind immediately began a frantic attempt to fill in the little blanks that had been left behind because of his inebriated state. But the only things he came up with were the exact same things he had remembered when he first pieced his night together – serving Hanji's table, getting roped into their night out, too many shots to count and fun and laughter all around. When and how had the chopper pilot almost kidnapped him? And more importantly, how the hell had his brain omitted this _vital_ piece of information?

"You don't remember?" Eren shook his head, his face devoid of all emotion. "Oh! Well after we got pretty drunk, you started craving macaroni and he was going to take you to his house to give you some."

"To his _house_?" Eren choked out. He could not believe what he was hearing.

"Yip!" Hanji sang. She shot Eren a frighteningly ecstatic glare. "It's kind of sweet, if you're into creepy."

"Uh…I'm not into any…" Eren started, but Hanji cut him off.

"Your massive rhino of a friend literally wrestled you out of Levi's arms. Shorty was _not_ impressed with that."

"Reiner?"

"I think so. He refused to believe that you were going willingly. Granted, Levi did _carry_ you to the car, but you did get in by yourself. So…technically, I don't think it's kidnapping. Or is it?"

Mortified could not even begin to describe how Eren felt. How had he almost gone home with a strange man, a rich, egotistical douchebag nonetheless, while drunk? How damn desperate must he have been for that macaroni to put himself in that sort of danger? He decided then and there to buy Reiner a case of beer to thank his friend for saving him from…Eren didn't even want to think about what could've happened if Reiner hadn't gotten to him on time. For all he knows, Levi could be a serial killer with a nasty fetish for picking up young men and dismembering them while alive, flying all over the country in his helicopter and dropping body parts to the ground every twenty miles to avoid being caught.

Eren shuddered at the thought of what excruciating pain one would be in while being dismembered alive.

"_Ready to cross_."

"Lima Aplha Hotel, cleared to cross runway two-niner, report safe on the ground." Hanji groaned and rubbed her temples. "I really hate the way he talks on the radio. I bet he won't even report safe."

"Why not report him?" Eren snapped. Oh how he wished he had that authority.

"He's my friend," Hanji replied. Eren scoffed at the idea of anyone wanting to be friends with that man. But then again, he wouldn't really put it passed Hanji to be friends with a serial killer. "He's really not so bad. I promise this is the first time he's ever tried to kidnap someone."

_That you know of_, Eren added mentally.

* * *

><p><em>What a fuck up<em>, Levi thought for the hundredth time today as he walked across the apron back to the terminal. He still couldn't get over the fact that he'd been so damn close to taking Eren home, only to be cock-blocked by that idiotic rhino that claimed to be the brunette's friend. And he definitely couldn't get over the fact that Erwin had not only let the brute take Eren away, but also that the man had managed to guilt-trip Levi into submission _yet again_. Levi wondered if he'd ever escape the hold Erwin had over him, but quickly realized that his life without that sort of restraint and direction would be no life at all. Erwin had instilled an odd but powerful sense of respect in Levi, one Levi would most likely never turn on. Despite the moments where he hated the mental gag-order, truth be told, he would forever be indebted to the man. He'd saved Levi's life, so Levi owed him unquestionable loyalty and utmost respect.

_If only that fucking brat would think the same way_, Levi thought. _Fucking ungrateful little shit._

Because he was unable to relieve the sexual frustration that had been compounding all week, and since that very same frustration dramatically escalated the night before when what he thought was a sure lay was yanked from him, Levi resorted to the next best form of stress relief: a flight to the spa to get a full body massage. As much as he hated people touching him, he desperately needed to wind down. He could physically feel his muscles knotting as his frustration translated into tension in his muscles. But who was he kidding? A man like himself could never feel relaxed because of something as mundane as getting rubbed down from head to toe. And now after wasting thousands of dollars on a flight he never planned to undertake and hundreds of dollars on a massage that did absolutely nothing to his state, Levi was in a worse mood than he was when he woke up at five AM thanks to his neighbor's house-alarm that wouldn't shut up.

As he powered his way to the terminal at a brisk pace that most people a foot taller than him wouldn't be able to maintain, his mind wondered to Eren, not for the first time that day. What would've happened if he had managed to get Eren to his house? Would Eren have accepted his advances or would the teen have freaked out and run off? Levi wasn't even sure about the brunette's sexual orientation but for the most part didn't care, simply because he knew how to get what he hadn't seriously thought of the possibility of Eren actually _rejecting_ his advances. While Levi reasoned that Eren was probably drunk enough to give into whatever would make him feel good, Levi couldn't be sure just what level of restraint the teen had. Although that would qualify as taking advantage of Eren, Levi dismissed it as thinking _anything_ would be taking advantage of Eren based purely on the boy's age.

"Ugh," Levi groaned, clenching his fists. "I don't care! I want him and I _will_ get him."

With nothing better to do with the rest of his afternoon, Levi decided to visit Hanji. Maybe the woman knew someone decent that he could sleep with, just to get a little of the edge off. Now that he was no longer in the mood to go out, he couldn't fathom expending energy on finding someone to bed. And the last thing he wanted to do was call someone he'd already been with, because all Levi wanted to do was _fuck_ – no conversation, no names, not even a hello if possible. He wanted to stick it in someone and fuck the hell out of them, pretending to fuck Eren, and then move on with his life.

Hanji was quick to answer the intercom and delighted when she heard Levi's voice demand that she open the door. He deftly made way up the dozens of stairs, his fit body ghosting up the incline as if it were level ground. At the second security gate, he was about to push the buzzer but paused when he heard a familiar yet strained voice coming from the tower.

"…hang out with other pilots, okay!" a very familiar voice said. "It's making me…"

"Jealous?" Hanji tried.

"Yeah. I don't like that I can't fly right now. I don't like that I might never be able to fly again."

Not caring to hear anymore, and keen to see the pretty face of the owner of that sweet voice, Levi buzzed the buzzer. The gate immediately unlocked and he swung it open only to be met with those breath-taking oceanic eyes with more sadness in them than a little girl orphaned in war. A lump formed in Levi's throat at the sight of the teen's depressed eyes as Eren stood before him, awkwardly seeking permission to slip past and leave. Eren only waited a second and when Levi didn't move, he pushed passed Levi before bolting down the stairs, his long legs easily taking four at a time.

"What the fuck was that all about?" Levi asked, popping his head around the corner to see Hanji staring at the door with sad eyes.

"Poor thing," Hanji said. "He was just telling me about the crash investigation. If he's found guilty as the cause of the accident he could lose his licence."

Without another word, Levi turned on his heel and bolted down the stairs in much the same fashion as Eren had, but instead of four steps, he could only manage three at a time. He ignored Hanji calling after him, his sole focus now on getting to Eren before Eren disappeared again. Levi didn't know if he would be able to handle not communicating with the brat at all again, especially knowing Eren had his number and just didn't want to call. He had to get Eren to call, or at least get the teen's number. The odds of another chance encounter were slim, and Levi was not about to let this precious opportunity slip through his fingers.

Levi found Eren in the airport's small parking lot straddling a small but beautiful black and green Suzuku 250cc motorbike. The plain black helmet sat atop the fuel tank as Eren's crossed arms held it in place, his head face-down against his forearms. The brunette was motionless as he lay against his helmet, oblivious to Levi's advance.

"Oi," Levi called when he was near enough. Eren's head snapped up and sad oceanic eyes met with stormy grey ones. "What the fuck was that all about?"

"Why do you care?" Eren muttered.

The raven came to a standstill two meters in front of Eren and crossed his arms impatiently, glaring at the teen. That answered one of Eren's questions from earlier: no, Levi was not hung over today. The man looked fresh as can be and meaner than ever. In other words, he looked normal.

"You almost crushed me against a wall and threw me down a dozen stairs," Levi said. "I want to know why some brat almost paralyzed me."

With a huff of annoyance and not a stitch of remorse, Eren muttered something that sounded like an apology. Levi smirked internally at the simple victory; first he'd gotten Eren to thank him and now he'd gotten the teen to say sorry. The next thing he wanted coming out of that boy's mouth is his name. In breathless ecstasy.

"So?" Levi prompted when Eren said nothing else.

"It's none of your business," Eren mumbled.

"Tch. Maybe you should take Hanji up on the offer for a psychologist."

"What?" Eren hissed.

How sexy when mad. How beautiful when sad. Levi loved how full of expression the teen was. Those bright eyes couldn't hide a single emotion even if the teen tried. They were like wide-open gates straight into his emotional mind, allowing all who was willing to pry to read him like an open book. And oh how Levi loved to read. He _loved_ stripping down a person layer by layer, laying them bare before him so that he could see the deepest parts of their souls. Yet with Eren that wouldn't be necessary; the teen would lay himself bare for Levi, and Levi would simply devour the intricacies of the brunette's emotional mind.

Levi sighed. "You're grounded, right?" A look of shock and then shame came across Eren's features, but ultimately defeat held its place. He averted his eyes and nodded slowly. Pity surged through Levi but it didn't show on his features or in his bored voice. "Come fly with me."

"Huh?" Eren's head snapped up and he saw the man staring at him impassively. "Say again?"

"Come fly with me."

"No thanks."

Levi glared at Eren, annoyed by the blunt rejection. Heat shimmered beneath his skin as he fought the urge to kick the ungrateful brat to the ground and give him a piece of his mind, but of course, he held himself still. As much as he wanted to thrust his clenched fist into the teen's obnoxious, thick skull, Levi cringed at the mere thought of Eren's beautiful face swollen and bruised. The brat was damn lucky that Levi was such a shallow bastard.

In an even and quite voice, Levi said, "You're grounded and it's obviously bothering you. If you want to fly, I can take you. Name the time and place."

_Did that sound desperate or creepy_? Levi wondered.

Neither, apparently, because Eren simply snorted, that familiar glint of defiance returning to his eyes. "I miss flying, sure, but I have my pride."

The raven's eyes narrowed into slits and he took a step closer to Eren. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean, you shitty brat?"

Eren visibly flinched at the harsh tone in Levi's voice, which pleased the man. But it did not please him nearly enough to douse the sting of the insult. And to add salt to the wound, the boy had the audacity to elaborate, clearly misunderstanding the implication of the question being rhetorical.

"I'd rather be grounded than fly that piece of shit Robinson again," Eren stated. His words were strong but his voice wasn't.

If Levi weren't so insulted, he'd have laughed at the brat's _poor_ attempt at defiance. No one could stand up to Levi without cowering, except Erwin, and perhaps Hanji but that was because that woman was too insane to care about the consequences of pissing Levi off. While Levi wanted to give kudos to the teen for _trying_, the insult left a bitter taste in Levi's mouth and now the urge to floor the kid and beat him to within an inch of death reared strongly within Levi.

"You're an ungrateful piece of shit, you know that?" Levi hissed. To hell with not stooping down to a teenager's level to argue. This teenager just crossed the line. Nobody calls his multi-million dollar plaything a 'piece of shit'. "Didn't your mother ever teach you fucking manners?"

Something in Eren changed, and Levi immediately noticed it. The boy's posture when rigid and his eyes lost all defiance and before it was replaced with a perfect void, pain as deep as the black of a starless and moonless night flashed in his eyes for just a fraction of a second. Eren immediately dropped his head, slipped his helmet on and started his motorbike. Levi stepped back, shocked into silence as he watched Eren start up his bike and drive off without so much as another word.

Eren didn't say what he wanted to say before driving off. _If my mother could've, I'm sure she would've_. He had no energy left to argue, no desire to fight. He wouldn't give the man the satisfaction of knowing he was riled up and emotional because of a few nasty words. Because it wasn't just a few nasty words that had Eren riled up and on the verge of tears. It was the possibility that his career, his life, was over before it even began. It was knowing that he was in this alone because no one was there to support him. His best friends were too busy with their own lives to be able to help him work through this, and even Marco, his partner in the crash, was unavailable to support Eren. His father probably didn't even know he'd been in an accident in the first place and his mother…well. She was dead.

He hadn't thought about it until now but Eren realized just how alone he really was in this fiasco. No one understood and no one could possibly understand how he was feeling. Maybe Levi was right, maybe he really should consider taking Hanji up on that offer.

* * *

><p>As Erwin had promised himself, he got Levi out for drinks. No one in the isolated raven's life had a clue what was going on with the man, in fact, no one even realised something was different about the man, but Erwin had noticed and it was time he confronted Levi about it. About Eren. And Levi knew this. Levi was acutely aware that Erwin had the capability of reading him like a book – much to his annoyance – so there was no use in avoiding the topic any longer. Levi had seen this talk coming from that first time he asked about Eren two weeks ago. Has it really only been two weeks?<p>

Only two weeks and already the man couldn't imagine life without a boy who wanted nothing to do with him.

"Get to the point, Smith," Levi demanded. He didn't want to meet Erwin knowing what it would entail, but the blonde had the patience of a saint and would undoubtedly bide his time to breach the topic. And if there's one thing Levi hated, it's procrastinating. Best get it over with.

Erwin sighed heavily. There really was no beating around the bush with Levi.

"It's happening again, isn't it?" Erwin said. "With Eren."

Levi knew exactly what Erwin meant by 'it'. It: obsession, desire, infatuation, the need to own, to possess, to claim.

"So?" Levi said. "What's the problem?"

"The problem, Levi, is that you assaulted a complete stranger because you wanted to take a drunk teenager home with you."

The raven flinched at the blonde's words. They were the perfect summary of what had happened on Friday, but at the same time they made everything sound so much worse. Those words made Levi sound like an aggressive pedophile.

"He's legal," Levi reminded Erwin.

Regret suddenly filled Erwin's blue eyes. He should never have encouraged Levi to pursue Eren. At the time, Erwin had no way of knowing that Levi's infatuation was actually obsession. But even if he hadn't encouraged his friend, fate would've still brought them together, wouldn't it? Their chance encounter in Shiganshina had nothing to do with Erwin's encouragement. Levi would've still found the crash site and inevitably become obsessed with the teen either way.

"Levi, you have to be careful," Erwin said softly. "I don't want to see you go through the same thing as with…"

"Don't!" Levi growled, interrupting Erwin. Erwin froze. "Don't say her name. Do. Not. Not _ever_."

Erwin nodded in understanding. He knew Levi would never truly get over _her_ and what she did. Her disappearance tore the man apart and Levi had become so closed up that it was nearly impossible for him to even maintain healthy friendships. This was the prime reason Erwin was both surprised by and afraid of Levi's sudden intense feelings for Eren. He never thought his friend had it in him to want another human being like that again, and he was deathly afraid of what would happen if this entire situation turned out to be an encore of the last time. This time, Erwin feared, Levi wouldn't survive.

"So," Erwin pried in attempt to lighten the mood, "why Eren? What is it about my cadet that makes you want to claim him?"

A ghost of a smile tickled Levi's mouth and Erwin couldn't help but smile at this. It was pathetic, really, that such a powerful business man could be reduced to a hormonal and emotional mess because of a teenager he hardly knew, but just as it was pathetic, it was endearing. Many people claimed they could list Levi's human qualities on one hand and still have an excess of fingers, but this sort of behavior proved to Erwin that Levi was just as human as himself and that Levi was capable of being a mess as well.

"Those eyes," Levi simply said. His eyes didn't have the dreamy look of a high school girl in love, but they most certainly had a faraway look in them. "They're so honest. I don't know him at all but I feel like every time I look at him I know everything about him. And every time he looks at me, there's intrigue. He wants to know me. He wants me. He just doesn't know it yet."

"Hmm." Erwin crossed his arms on the table between them and he eyed Levi's contemplative face for a moment before speaking. "I must admit, I could see the intrigue in Eren's eyes when he looked at you on Friday." This caught Levi's attention. He focused his gaze on Erwin and nodded for the man to continue. "When he was serving us, he was constantly assessing your reactions towards him. He cares what you think. So, yes, I saw the intrigue…and fear and intimidation and irritation and a hint of hostility as well…but intrigue nonetheless."

Levi snorted at this. Erwin was not wrong. Eren didn't particularly favor Levi…no, no use in being politically correct about it. Eren hated Levi's guts. And why? Simply because Levi liked to have his engine on top of him and not in front of or beside him. It was childish and downright _stupid_ to be able to hate someone so much that you won't even offer to take them out for drinks to say 'thanks for saving my life' simply because they fly a different type of machine than you. But Eren's childishness is what gave him his feistiness and the teen's feistiness is one of the things Levi liked most.

"He's so fucking frustrating," Levi growled, running his fingers through his feathery hair. Just thinking about Eren and the boy's feelings towards him made him want to chew his tongue off. "He hates me so fucking much and I can't understand why! We've only met twice, and one of those times I saved his ass, mind you."

Erwin bit back the snotty response of 'you wanted to do more to his ass' opting to be mature while Levi ranted. Snapping snide comments would only lead to Levi becoming hostile or closing up and then the situation would just escalate from there. While Levi mostly liked the sound of his own voice, it was extremely rare that the man ranted like this, especially about his feelings. It was extremely rare and Erwin was not going to pass up the opportunity to hear Levi's innermost thought.

"He flew with me for two hours," Levi continued, "and the next time I saw him we were all drunk and having a good time. For the love of god can someone just tell me where I fucked up?"

"You really want this kid to be yours…"

Levi sighed in resignation. "You know that the only other time I've felt this way was over…_her_." Erwin nodded in agreement. "It's the same as that time, Erwin. But worse. It's so much fucking stronger that it's driving me insane. I don't want the kid, I fucking _need _him. He has to be _mine_, Erwin. Eren Jaeger is _mine_."

Erwin let Levi's words sink in, pondering what his friend had said. In the same breath, Levi had both stated that he wants to own Eren _and_ that Eren is already his…this was definitely a point of concern for Erwin. While Levi seemed to be aware that he was nowhere near where he wanted to be with the boy, he was still behaving and thinking as if the boy were already his property…his altercation with Eren's friend was proof enough of that. It was too late to try and talk sense into Levi, and Erwin knew this. The least he could do is offer support to his friend.

"How are you going to pull this off? It isn't as simple as 'boy meets girl, boy courts girl, girl falls in love'. Eren is a man, and you have to take that into consideration. More likely than not, he's not even sexually interested in men. Add that to the feelings he already has for you…"

"Tch, I know. But what about the intrigue we saw? What the fuck was that, huh?"

Erwin took a deep breath, rubbing his temples with his thumb and middle finger as he gathered his thoughts. While Levi was already acting inappropriately possessive, at least the man still had enough common sense to take Eren's feelings into account. He may be latching on what he saw in Eren on Friday, but Erwin couldn't deny that the boy _did _look interested in Levi, if not as a lover than as a person at least. He couldn't blame Levi for feeling so frustrated.

"What are you going to do now?" Erwin simply asked. He was in no position to give advice, and to be honest, he didn't want to. Levi wouldn't accept it and would most likely insult him for interfering, and Erwin simply wasn't up for name calling today. He'd simply let Levi make his own decision and support his friend as best he could.

"I have to win him over somehow," Levi whispered more to himself than to Erwin. He lifted his eyes to Erwin then and said, "I offered to take him flying since he's grounded."

"Oh, that's good. What did he say?"

"He practically told me to shove my chopper up my ass."

Erwin couldn't help but chuckle. The Eren that Levi continuously described was nothing like the Eren he'd come to know in the few months he'd been in charge of the teen's flying. He knew Eren as a kind, warm and polite young man, not a stubborn, foul-mouthed and hateful teen. Then again, when he'd seen Eren drunk for the first time on Friday, Erwin saw parts of Eren he never would have in a professional environment. Every person had multiple faces, and Levi was obsessed with a face Erwin didn't know.

"Levi. You've already set your mind to getting Eren. There is nothing I or anyone can say or do to deter you from your chosen path. He can tell you to shove Lexy up your ass a thousand times and you'll still…"

"You're really sticking to that ridiculous name?" Levi interrupted. Lexy was the name Hanji had given Levi's helicopter when he bought it, stating it was a combination of 'Levi' and 'Sexy'. Levi hated the name and ignored its existence, but when it came up in conversations now and then he couldn't help but get distracted by it.

The blonde smiled. "As I was saying…"

Just as Erwin was going to continue his speech, Levi's phone rang. It vibrated on the table between them as an unknown caller phoned. Ordinarily, Levi would ignore calls from unknown callers on weekends, but since he gave his number to Eren, he had been answering every single call coming to his phone, even calls from blocked numbers, which he _never_ did under any circumstances. Erwin raised a brow as Levi answered the call, perfectly aware of the raven's phone habits.

"Hello?"

"_Uh…hi is this…Levi Ackerman_?"

A maniacal smile exploded on Levi's face as the strong voice of a certain oceanic-eyed brunette graced his ear. Erwin sat back in his chair, curious, but also disturbed by the awkward set of Levi's facial features.

"Speaking."

Now it was Erwin's time to smile, or chuckle rather. Despite Levi's obvious excitement, he still maintained a perfect monotone, sounding entirely disinterested in the call. Within a second, Levi's smile had faltered, his face set neutrally again.

"_It's Eren. Uhm…look about yesterday…_"

"Eren?" Levi trailed off, pretending not to remember. Erwin's eyes almost fell out of their sockets and the man was on the edge of his seat, leaning against the table and staring at Levi in disbelief.

A minute ago, Levi couldn't quit ranting about how desperately he wanted Eren and wondering how he could make the teen hate him less, yet here he sat acting as if he didn't know the teen at all when the teen had finally called him. It was an unbelievable display of pure douchery that even Erwin would not deny. He knew his friend was egotistical but even this was going a bit far.

"_Jaeger. Eren Jaeger._"

"Ah, Eren, I remember now." _Sexy as hell, tight fuckable ass, lips made for blowjobs, hands that'll look perfect on my…_

"_Look I just wanted to say sorry about yesterday, you know, for being so rude_," Eren sighed in irritation. This was definitely scripted. Levi strained to hear better and could actually hear someone in the background whispering to Eren in what sounded like frustration. The voice was female. "_Ugh. Uhm, yeah. Also…is that offer still standing?_"

"Which offer?" _To come to my place? Definitely_. "You need to be specific, Jaeger."

"_To f-f-fly with you_." The way the brat stuttered made Levi think he was going to say 'fuck' instead of 'fly'. Either way, the answer would've been the same.

"Sure. Name the time and place."

A chuckle slipped through Erwin's lips and the man shook his head, sitting back once again and crossing his arms over his chest. _Unbelievable_, he thought, as he watched his friend secure a date with the very brunette who wanted nothing to do with the raven. To say Erwin was impressed would be putting it very mildly. Barely a minute ago Levi was at wits end because the kid wanted nothing to do with him, and here Levi was in the process of organizing a date. Levi clearly never exaggerates when he boasts that he _always _gets what he wants.

_What a legend,_ Erwin thought.

"_Tell me when you're going again_," Eren said. "_I don't have much going on in the day so I'm pretty much always available._"

"I'll be in touch."

Without waiting or even uttering a goodbye, Levi hung up and placed his phone back on the table. When his eyes met with Erwin's he couldn't help but smirk at the utter shock in those deep, blue orbs and the tiny smile playing on the man't lips. After being insulted and rejected, the brunette had finally agreed to spend time with him. Levi could only hope the teen would be civil, but at this point in time he didn't care: as long as he was alone with Eren, the teen could be as rude as he bloody wants and Levi would still be satisfied.

"Care to explain?" Erwin asked.

"I have a date with Eren Jaeger," Levi said proudly. His smirk turned devious as he continued, "And Lexy."

* * *

><p><strong>Wooh! So the boys have made <em>some<em> progress. A little is better than nothing, right?**

**Thanks for reading :) Stay tuned for the next episode.**

**Which, incidentally, MIGHT come out sooner rather than later. A few days? Let's see.**


	9. Chapter 9: No Fucking Way

**A/N: This happened a lot faster than usual haha. I did say I would try. This chapter focuses a bit more on Eren and I should warn you that there is suggestive adult themes in this chapter.**

**I don't really know what else to say right now because I'm in a bit of a dreary mood. Anyway, I hope you enjoy nonetheless. My mood will most certainly not be prevalent in this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own SNK, its characters or any other brands mentioned in this story.**

* * *

><p>If Eren were to say he was pissed off at Mikasa for forcing him to call Levi and accept the man's offer to fly, that would be stating it mildly; the brunette was absolutely <em>livid<em>. Having been forced at knife-point to make the embarrassing phone call to not only apologize to Levi for his rude behavior, but to also take up the man's offer, Eren had left Mikasa's apartment and hadn't contacted her since. If the fact that she'd forced him to make the call in the first place wasn't bad enough, having been held at knife-point – because, much like Eren, Mikasa always believed violence to be the solution – was bad enough to justify him ignoring every call and text message from his sister. Eren even went as far as ignoring Armin, who had sided with Mikasa in an attempt to get Eren to at least acknowledged her half-assed apologies.

'I'm sorry, Eren, but you need to get your head out of your ass.'

'I'm sorry but that was nice of him. You really were being a dick.'

'Come on, Eren. I'm sorry, okay? But someone has to teach you some bloody manners.'

That last one didn't add just fuel to the fire, it threw in a powerful catalyst that had the blaze of wrath explode into an inferno of rage and hatred. It had become so potent that Eren was no longer able to hold his tongue and ended up lashing out on poor Armin as to how damn inappropriate Mikasa was being. But, being the good friend he is, Armin listened patiently as Eren absolutely flipped his lid, badmouthing and belittling the girl he called his family. When Eren told Armin what Levi had said about his mother, Armin immediately understood Eren's strong reaction to Mikasa – the blonde endeavored to do what he had always done best, and swiftly headed to Mikasa to do 'damage control'.

Needless to say, after both stubborn teens had gotten a good pep talk from the silver-tongued Armin Arlert, both Mikasa's pestering and Eren's raging came to an end. Mikasa begrudgingly agreed to give Eren his space, and after not hearing from the girl for two days, Eren's temper eventually calmed down and he realized he was starting to miss her. Not that he would text her first...he had his pride.

When Thursday eventually rolled around and Eren received a call from Zacklay, summoning him to the aviation head office for more interviews, Eren had to fight the urge, his instinct, to seek comfort from Mikasa. The stoic, level-headed girl had always been the one person that Eren could rely on in times of stress, the one person who spoke too little to further aggravate him (unlike Armin) yet spoke just enough to calm him down. While Armin was his go-to guy for advice, Mikasa was the girl he relied on to keep his head in the game.

Only now his pride wouldn't let him.

So as Eren stood in front of the mirror, staring blankly at his smartly-dressed self, he noticed his entire body was trembling very slightly. The brunette took deep breaths, holding them each for three seconds before exhaling and repeating. This wouldn't be the first interrogation he'd been called into, so why was he so nervous? Was it the same fear that every word he said would be torn down to the letter and analysed in search of fault? Or was it simply the fear of appearing before the man that held Eren's career in the palm of his hands? No, it was neither…today, Eren would be meeting the international investigators partaking in this investigation, and just the thought that internationals were involved made Eren realize just how serious the investigation actually was.

Yet despite his obvious fear and numbing anxiety, there was absolutely nothing Eren could do to prepare himself for the meeting. If he were lying about the events leading up to the accident then he could at least rehearse his script and perfect any discrepancies. But Eren was not lying about a single thing, he could do nothing but expose the uncensored truth.

Well. Except for the part where he froze up and Marco had to take control of the aircraft to land it. But both young men agreed that that was a secret they would take to their graves.

* * *

><p>Marco had been kind enough to offer Eren a lift to the aviation authority offices, since he'd been summoned as well. The kind, dark-haired man fetched Eren from the brunette's doorstep, and together the uniformed men made the forty-minute trip to what all pilots deemed 'Satan's HQ'. At least that was one thing the chopper pilots and the fixed-wing pilots could agree on.<p>

They arrived at their destination nearly an hour early thanks solely to Marco's absolute paranoia of encountering an accident on the highway, and the two decided to sit in Marco's car, and relax before potentially being torn apart. Both of them had pushed their seats all the way back before reclining them, lying nearly perfectly horizontal in Marco's spacious sedan. Neither one of them said a word for a long time, both staring up at the ceiling of the car while listening to the radio as it played an odd collection of songs ranging from deep house to hard rock.

Both of them were afraid. Eren had more to lose than Marco because of his position at the time of the accident, but both were anxious to get their names cleared. Eren was especially anxious for Marco to be cleared, and quite frankly couldn't fathom the reason for Marco's involvement in the investigation at this point. By now it should've been blatantly obvious that Marco was nothing more than a passenger at the time of the accident, so why did the investigative panel insist on analyzing Marco's role?

"Why are they still investigating you?" Eren blurted out unthinkingly. As soon as the words left his mouth, the brunette regretted asking – he may have been curious, but he knew what a sensitive subject it was. He should've known better.

Marco smiled a sad smile and turned his head slightly so that he could see the brunette chewing the inside of his cheek. "I was pilot-in-command when the flight started. So the flight commenced at my discretion." That sounded awfully rehearsed. "They're focusing on my route and weather planning and if I had endangered us by going ahead with the flight in the first place."

Eren turned his head then and found Marco's emotionless eyes staring up at the car's roof. He had not realized that Marco was being investigated as the cause of the accident. Not once since the accident had occurred had Eren thought that Marco was in the exact same position as himself, and that Marco stood to lose as much as Eren – his licence. Eren had been so self-absorbed that he didn't realized that Marco was also a victim of the fear that now plagued Eren's mind, and as the brunette stared at the empty eyes of his friend and colleague, the fingers of guilt constricted around his throat. If he hadn't been so absorbed in his own depression and fear, perhaps he would've realized Marco's situation. If only he had asked, he would've seen that he wasn't actually alone in all of this.

"That's…" Eren didn't know what to say. Messed up? Fucked up? Not cool? Not okay? Nothing he could say would truly describe just how truly _fucked up_ their situation was.

"I know," Marco whispered. Sadness flashed in his eyes for a moment before the freckled man turned to Eren and smiled warmly. "But what can we do about it? We must just be honest and endure this and hope it'll all be over soon."

"Yeah. This 'no-flying' thing is really starting to get to me. I miss it."

"Why don't you fly with other students at the school?"

"Really?" Eren scoffed. "You know I'm not really friends with any of them. They're a bunch of rich, spoilt brats who just fly because they can afford it."

Marco chuckled softly at this. Eren's opinion on the majority of the students hadn't changed in the time he'd been at the school, and Marco loved how worked up Eren got because _other people_ threw _their_ money around as they pleased. As amusing as it was, Marco understood that because Eren didn't come from money, so money was a sensitive topic even if it wasn't his own. That didn't stop the fact that Eren's outbursts were nothing short of comical in their potency.

A comfortable silence settled between the two as they continued to listen to the radio. Listening to the variety of music that was being spewed from the speakers, it was easy to understand why this was the most popular radio station in the country; there was a little something for everyone. The DJs were young and exciting, and their topics of discussion were just as vast as the music they played – from playing dating games on air to discussing political crises and its consequences on the youth, the DJs never failed to capture the attention of at least one group of people. Namely the youth.

"Have you seen Levi since the crash?" Marco asked.

_WHAT._

The brunette's head snapped to the side so he could let Marco see the horror in his eyes. The mere mention of the man's name had Eren's heart beating faster and his lungs suddenly struggling to find air, all the while Marco remained cool and impassive, staring at the hand he raised above his hand as he played with the promise ring Jean had given him.

"E-excuse me?" Eren managed.

"Levi. He gave us both business cards after bringing us back to Karanese that day. That was really sweet of him." Marco blushed ever so slightly, which did nothing but add to Eren's horror. "I took him out for dinner to say thanks…Jean wasn't too happy about that!" A nervous laughed slid from between Marco's lips. "Well, I don't blame him. Levi is pretty hot so…"

"Okay!" Eren snapped, cutting Marco off. Why did hearing the man's name make Eren's heart want to vacate its post? Why did hearing Marco talk about Levi as if the man were another living, breathing human being make Eren's blood boil? He wanted this topic of conversation to be buried and never excavated – he wanted to forget about Levi and never hear the man's name or see the man's face _ever_ again. "No! I haven't seen him since!" Eren snapped a little too harshly.

Taken aback by Eren's suddenly aggressive demeanor, Marco opted to end the conversation there. It was a wise decision on his part, because Eren wasn't sure how his body would react next – from a violently beating heart to red-hot boiling blood, Eren feared his lungs and eventually his brain would succumb to whatever it was that held his body in its grasp at the mere mention of the millionaire's name.

Just then, Eren remembered something. Something Levi had said but a few days ago, the very thing that had caused Eren to shut down and race to Mikasa. Something about being an ungrateful brat. Eren risked a sideways glance at Marco, who now had his eyes closed and a small content smile playing on his lips as he listened to the old-school rock song on the radio, and the brunette wondered if Marco was the reason Eren seemed so ungrateful to the man. If Marco had taken Levi out to say thanks, did Levi expect the same thing from Eren?

_Ridiculous_, Eren thought, snorting. He'd said his thanks after they landed and he owed the man no more than that. While the man did _technically_ save their lives, they weren't really in any _imminent_ danger, so staying at the crash site until the next aircraft passed by wouldn't have been the death of them. Levi's charitable act was definitely not worth dinner in Eren's eyes.

* * *

><p>This may have been his fourth, probably fifth time in this very room, but that certainly didn't detract from the intimidating nature of the poorly-lit and mostly empty room. The fluorescent light above did little to ward off the darkness of the shadows, and while there was a small, rectangular window near the ceiling, running the entire span of the west wall, the fact that the glass was frosted kept the sunlight well out. The room only had one rickety steel table in the center of it, rectangular and large enough to fit ten men around it. Today, however, there were only five men, and Eren.<p>

At the head of the table sat the man Eren had come to know as Zacklay, the lead investigator of the accident. Throughout their various interactions and the man's business card that Eren now had lodged in his wallet behind his motorbike licence, he'd learnt the man's name was in fact Darius Zacklay. The man had the same skeptical look in his eye as always, something Eren should've been used to by now but couldn't help feel intimidated by. It was that very look the man wore than made Eren feel as if the man was hell-bent on proving Eren's guilt.

On Zacklay's right was a man Eren had met before, Nile Dok, another investigator. He had a long, thin face, his cheek bones prominent not because they were strong or high, but because the flesh surrounding them had sunken in. His nose was just as long, and was a pointy and prominent fixture on the man's face. He had small bags under his condescending eyes, brows furrowed as he glared accusingly at nothing in particular. A short, trimmed mustache sat between the prominent nose and the scowling lips, and on his chin an equally trimmed patch of hair rested. Eren thought this the last time he saw the dark-haired man and he would think it again – this man was born to be a chopper pilot.

Mike Zacharias, on Zacklay's left, had shaggy blonde hair hanging in his eyes and over his ears, with short brown hair shaved against his scalp at the back of his head. He had long, stubbly sideburns and a neat mustache and chin patch much like Nile's, but Mike's hair wandered along his jawline to meet with his sideburns. The man had a serious face, his permanently scowling lips always pressed in a thin line, but never once had he given Eren so much as a condescending glare or a glare at all. His job on the panel was to evaluate human performance, and he was the man that had been dissecting both Eren and Marco's personal lives down to the minute in the weeks leading up to the accident. Eren was well-aware of the fact that Nile had dug into his past and had even gone as far as interviewing Eren's friends, but since it was part of the investigation, he had no say in Nile's interactions with Armin and Mikasa.

The two unknown males sat beside Nile and Mike. The man beside Nile had short brown hair that coned around his crown in an awkward way, and he had a small button nose and the dark, beady eyes of a heroin addict. The man across from him, who sat beside Mike was bald…in fact, the only hair on his face was the long patch of brown fluff hanging off his chin. No eyebrows, no eyelashes, nothing. His eyes were ringed so dark Eren wondered if the man had ever gotten a wink of sleep in his entire life, but didn't dare ask lest those wild, animalistic eyes probed into Eren and tore the teen to shreds.

"Welcome, Mr Jaeger," Zacklay said, neatening the papers in front of him. "Before you have a seat, I need to introduce you to my associates. You are familiar with Nile and Mike?" Eren nodded and greeted the two men stiffly. "Beside Nile is one Gunter Schultz. He's the meteorology expert we've called in from overseas. Across from him is an investigator representing Cessna, Keith Shadis."

Nervously, Eren introduced himself to the two new gentlemen with as firm a handshake as the trembling teen could manage, before finding his seat at the opposing head of the table. He sat in silence as Zacklay handed out memos to all the men around the table, and within seconds, everyone sat with a stack of papers in front of them and pens in their hands…everyone except Eren, who sat with his hands folded in his lap, twiddling his thumbs nervously.

"Today's meeting won't take long," Zacklay said. "I just needed you to meet the external investigators, and they will ask a few preliminary questions, and then we will be done here. Do you understand?"

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Eren nodded and whispered a meek 'yes, sir' before gripping his hands tightly in his lap to cease the fumbling. The sweat from the palms of his hands locked his fingers in place as they interlinked with one another, and Eren had to steady his breathing lest his voice betray the nervous wreck he'd become under the scrutiny of the five men who would ultimately determine the trajectory of his life. Zacklay said it wouldn't take long, but to Zacklay, not long meant anything from an hour to three hours, as Eren had learnt the hard way.

With his resolve set and his precarious confidence checked in place, Eren lifted his eyes and stared at an empty spot on the table, steeling himself for another lengthy and emotionally draining interrogation.

* * *

><p>Five hours later, both Marco and Eren were released from their respective interrogations. Why the investigators insisted on calling them interviews was beyond Eren – an interview was a discussion working towards something positive while and interrogation was just this…finding out information that could potentially ruin someone. While neither Marco nor Eren's interrogations were particularly rough, both young men were at exhausted purely because of the anxiety and adrenaline that had held them all day. It was no easy task to sit in a room with five men determined to uncover the cause of an accident, a young man's future be damn.<p>

"Would you like to hang out at my place?" Eren asked. "We could get pizza and watch some stupid movie. I just want to get my mind off this shit."

"As long as it has no planes in it," Marco replied. Eren snorted in agreement. "Would you mind if I fetched Jean? He's staying at my place."

Jean had come up from the coast after the accident, throwing his studies to the back of his mind to support his boyfriend. It was sweet, Eren had to admit, but if he considered the circumstances that surrounded the fact that Jean was Marco's only support, then it was downright depressing. Marco's parents had disowned him after he'd come out of the closet at the end of high school, kicking him out of the house and never uttering a word to him since. If the Bodt family hadn't paid for Marco's flight training upfront when he started, Eren was sure they would've taken that money away and let Marco battle his way through funding his own tertiary education.

"Sure," Eren said. He didn't particularly get along with Jean, but in all honestly, Jean wasn't _always_ a complete asshole.

After fetching Jean and buying two large pizzas and a twelve-pack of beer, the three males went to Eren's apartment to enjoy one of Eren's downloaded movies, which was guaranteed to be at least one hundred minutes of absolutely mind-numbing bullshit. Eren's taste in movies was atrocious, and all his friends new this, and the only one who actually tolerated it was Armin. But because both Marco and Eren wanted their brains to be hammered by inconsequential nonsense, Jean agreed to humor Eren and let him choose the movie.

They wondered into the dark house carrying the food and drinks they'd bought, and while Jean got comfortable on the couch in front of the TV, Eren meandered around the living room towards the kitchen, turning on all the lights as he went along. After turning on the kitchen light and rounding the counter's corner into the kitchen, something on the floor caught Eren's attention and made the masculine brunette scream like a nine year old girl.

The shrill, high-pitched shriek that came from Eren's mouth had Jean on his feet and darting to the kitchen in an instinctive, valiant effort to defend those around him from whatever threat had presented itself. But with Eren blindly bolting from the kitchen, the two brunette males collided with earth-shattering momentum that caused them both to fall back onto the floor in a head of cussing and groaning. All the while Marco, who had frozen at the sound coming from Eren's mouth, stared wide-eyed at the kitchen as a looming figure appeared behind the counter.

A tall, lanky blonde male stood awkwardly in the kitchen, hands at his eyes and dark eyes trained on the commotion in the living room as he munched a large human-shaped biscuit that was lodged between his lips. His head was cocked slightly to the side, curiously observing Eren as the brunette struggled to his feet while giving Jean a good cussing out. As soon as Eren was on his feet, he spun around to glare at the awkward figure in the kitchen.

"Jesus Christ, Thomas!" Eren cried out. He ran his hands through his hair and let out a hissing breath. "What the fuck!"

"I was just eating," Thomas replied quietly around the gingerbread man in his mouth.

"No!" Eren shrieked, his voice several octaves higher than what was natural for a nineteen year old male. "Sitting on the floor _in the dark_ with a biscuit in your mouth is _not_ eating! That's waiting for scare the living shit out of someone! Fuck, dude! And why the fuck are you naked?"

"You have such a hard fucking head, Jaeger," Jean growled, drawing Eren's attention.

"Shut it, horse-face!" Eren snapped.

"Is this your roommate?" Marco asked in a desperate attempt to ease the tension. His hand was rubbing soothing circles on the bump on Jean's head.

All eyes were on Thomas as the man threw his head back and let the biscuit slide into his mouth, seemingly swallowing the remainder of it whole with the same head bobbing as a bird swallowing a fish. Jean stared in horrified disbelief at the barbaric display before him, noticing for the first time that the stranger in the kitchen was indeed naked.

"Yeah, Thomas the Ghost," Eren hissed.

Contrary to Eren's harsh words, he didn't particularly dislike his foreign housemate. Thomas was just…a little on the strange side. He was most likely younger than Eren, although Eren hadn't bothered to ask, and while he was quiet and recluse, he hadn't done anything outrageously odd…until tonight. In fact, Thomas was hardly at the house at all, spending five days out of seven somewhere else. Eren had never bothered asking about Thomas's whereabouts, and mostly appreciated having the house to himself. But there were days when Thomas was home, like today, and Eren was never prepared for his encounters with the strange man.

"Hi," Thomas said in a drawn out manner. He looked to Eren then and smiled, completely unaware that the look Eren was giving him was one of mortification. "I'm going now. Bye."

And just like that, Thomas ghosted out of the kitchen, his naked, pale body gliding across the floor with unnatural grace. The three men in the apartment watched in utter confusion as the naked blonde disappeared around the corner, taking the stairs that would undoubtedly lead to his bedroom. As soon as they heard a door shut and lock upstairs, both Marco and Jean turned their questioning gazes to Eren, desperately seeking answers. Instead, the brunette simply threw his hands up in the air and sighed in exasperation.

"Don't even ask!"

* * *

><p>Eren had fallen asleep halfway through the second movie; an emotionally and physically draining day coupled with half a dozen beers was a recipe for an early night, and the brunette did little to resist the sleepiness tugging at his consciousness. With Jean and Marco on the couch and Eren on the floor with his back against said couch, the brunette succumbed to his sleep while the couple happily continued with the movie. But after the movie had ended and the room fell into silence, Eren's ears picked up on a sound he'd never heard before, but one that was eerily familiar nonetheless. Bringing himself to consciousness, Eren's ears perked up as he analysed the slurping sound just centimeters from his ear. Recognition set in and Eren though he was going to be sick, but then another sound reverberated through the room that jolted Eren's body into immediate action – a moan.<p>

"What the fuck!" Eren roared out, jumping to his feet and spinning around to catch Jean between Marco's legs, cock in his mouth.

Marco quickly shoved Jean away and covered himself up, his face already cherry red from embarrassment as he shakily fumbled to pull his jeans back in place. Jean, on the other hand, simply wiped the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand, sat up quietly and shot Eren a highly irritated glare.

"What the fuck, Jaeger?" Jean hissed as if he had done nothing wrong.

"Y-you're asking _me_ that!?" Eren cried out. He shook his head and looked between the two males. Marco had turned away, unable to meet Eren's eyes. "You were giving him _head_ just centimeters from my face! And you ask _me_ 'what the fuck'?"

"You interrupted me," Jean said in a low and dangerous tone.

"Unbelievable! Get out, you horse-faced freak! Go suck him off at his place!"

"Are you kicking us out?" Jean challenged. He stood up and closed the gap between himself and Eren, standing just a few centimeters taller than the oceanic-eyed brunette.

"Yes," Eren hissed.

Marco jolted up and grabbed Jean's shoulders, tugging his boyfriend away from Eren. "Eren's right, Jean. That wasn't okay. Let's just go."

"It sounded pretty okay when I had your cock down my throat," Jean barked.

Eren cringed not only at the words but at the image that had just been imprinted in his mind of Jean taking Marco in with the efficiency of a seasoned porn star. He had to fight to keep his stomach down and instead of fight any longer, Eren simply turned and made his way to the front door. He swung it open and gestured for the couple to leave before things escalated any further.

"Sorry, Eren," Marco said guiltily as he passed Eren by.

Eren sighed. While it was as natural as breathing to climb down Jean's throat every chance he got, Eren found it impossible to be angry at the sweet, freckled man who just happened to be Jean's boyfriend. Marco was sweet to the core, and even if he had just gotten a blowjob on Eren's couch just centimetres away from Eren's head, the brunette _still_ couldn't raise his voice at Marco.

"It's okay," Eren said with a weak smile. "But you've gotta learn how to control your horse."

Marco laughed nervously. "Yeah, uh, we'll have a talk about that."

Eren just rolled his eyes. "Thanks for hanging out."

"Yeah. It was long overdue. And uh…sorry again."

"Don't mention it. Drive safe." Eren turned to Jean and glared. "Don't suck him off while he's driving."

"I'll suck him off when and where I please," Jean barked back.

"Ugh!"

Without another word, Eren slammed the front door shut and locked it. He immediately bolted upstairs to his shower in the hopes of washing the memory out of his mind.

* * *

><p>Even after only drinking six beers, Eren was positively buzzing. He cursed his unpredictable and fluctuating alcohol tolerance but was at least grateful that he didn't have to drive anywhere. At least he could just enjoy a lengthy shower before getting into bed naked and ending what had been an abomination of a day.<p>

The day had really played a number on him. The mental and emotional stress of having to face the men who would determine the course of his life had transmuted into muscle aches that not even a mindless night of beer and pizza could alleviate. What Eren needed now was a massage. Oh how he wished Armin was here – his petite best friend had a firm yet gentle touch that could squeeze away the world's worries from the deepest places in the body, and Eren was more than happy to be Armin's guinea pig on cue.

Stepping into the shower, Eren sunk down to sit on the floor and let the boiling water cascade right into his face. If he closed his eyes and ignored the searing temperature, he could imagine himself sitting naked in the rain. He'd never sat naked in the rain before, but he imagined it could be a relaxing experience if said rain was warm, summer showers. He imagined it would be calming and enjoyable to lay back naked and let the skies empty themselves onto his body.

Eren smiled contently, losing himself to the fantasy of lying bare in the rain: the warm summer's day had overcast skies that released a continuous yet gentle downpour of soft raindrops. The warm droplets pattered down against his torso, tickling his skin and awakening his tactile senses as the droplets raced down to the ground, leaving wet trails in their wake. Washing away the worries and woes of life, the ran would serve to revitalize him and the freshness of the wet grass all around him would invigorate his renewed senses. Nature infiltrated every aspect of his being as he lay there, an anomaly in the vast field beneath the crying skies.

But then a man walked by. It was not an image Eren had conjured up or even remotely desired to have in his mind, but he turned to look at the new anomaly nonetheless. The man was unclothed, his wet and muscular body on full display as he sauntered by uncaringly, his moving limbs conveniently covering up his most intimate area as he moved. Midnight black hair was matted to the man's scalp, drenched from the hours he'd spent in the rain much like Eren had been doing.

But who was this man?

Eren called out to the stranger, but the man ignored him. For the longest time, Eren called and cried out, desperate to see the face of the figure that had interrupted his perfect little fantasy. Eventually, the man stopped and turned, suddenly right over Eren, his body and all its intimate parts now on full display as he loomed over the brunette. Steely grey eyes bore into Eren's with a familiar yet paralysing intensity, jerking the teen right out of his dreamy state and launching him straight back to reality.

"Shit!"

The brunette's eyes snapped open and he flung himself upright. The first thing he noticed was that the water was no longer steaming hot but rather comfortably lukewarm. The second thing he noticed was that for the second time in less than seven days, Eren had found himself thinking about Levi while in the shower. This time, however, the thoughts about Levi were not innocent questions turning over in his mind. This time, Eren had the man naked in his mind, looming over his own naked body and fixing him in place with the eyes that could control his will. He let out a long sigh and ran a hand through his thick, wet hair, slowly bringing himself to his feet so he could wash his body. It was then that he noticed something odd, something so horribly out of place that he very nearly collapsed at the sight of it.

He had an erection.

_No fucking way…_

* * *

><p><strong>Oopsie, naughty Eren.<strong>

**Hope you enjoyed :) **


	10. Chapter 10: Love is a Funny Thing

**A/N: This happened quite fast, don't you think? You have my darling Shirai Phoenix to thank for the speedy update :P But I love you ALL. Every single one of my readers, but ESPECIALLY my reviewers. Like really, this love is real.**

**Anyhoo, this chapter is a tiny bit fillerish but not quite because there's a little important titbit that is vital to Levi's character in the story. So I wouldn't recommend skipping it...in any case, it's good to see what our favorite chopper pilot gets up to when he's not obsessing over Eren.**

**Disclaimer: No, no and no, I do not own SnK, its characters or any other brands mentioned in the story.**

* * *

><p>Levi had secured a date with Eren. It took a good twenty-four hours for that information to sink in, and once his mind fully comprehended that he'd have Eren for himself for a good portion of Saturday, he realised it may not be all that peachy. First and foremost, nowhere did anyone mention that this was a date – as far as Eren was concerned, he was simply taking a kind gentleman up on an offer to go flying. And as far as Levi was concerned, the phone call where Eren accepted said offer wasn't entirely consensual. Secondly, spending half a day with an aggressive, discriminatory teen with a superiority complex didn't exactly sound like fun, no matter how drop-dead gorgeous said teen may be. And thirdly, what would they even talk about – they had an age gap that was positively over a decade and probably no interests in common whatsoever. A day, or half a day, alone with a nineteen year old couldn't be entertaining no matter what…<p>

Unless…

A state akin to euphoria settled over Levi late on Monday and stayed with him through to Friday. Despite having no issues whatsoever at work, Levi had been at the office every single day that week, from the early hour of seven in the morning right through to five that afternoon. While this in itself was odd, the fact that he'd spent all those hours in his office and _not_ chewing out his underlings was an absolute anomaly – it had become common knowledge to those who worked at Colossus that if the boss ever spent more than five hours at a time in the building, someone was getting into trouble or possibly fired.

Yet during that particular week, nothing of the sort happened. The usually frightening owner of the largest weapons manufacturing company in the world had been oddly bearable and dare his subordinates say, _tolerable_. Even his assistant, Petra, who kept interactions with him curt, for reasons other than his unbearable personality, found it almost pleasant to be in his company. She likened his elated mood to how he behaved after a good lay…which she regrettably knew from experience.

And that is why she had become so curious, so utterly fascinated by Levi…who was it that the man had seen to put him in such a lasting good mood? Surely it couldn't have just been one lay if the effects were so pronounced for five days? Perhaps Levi had started dating someone? It seemed far-fetched but given what had happened between Levi and that cute brunette just a week prior, Petra couldn't contain the curiosity raging out of control within her.

Desperately needing answers, Petra and Hanji organised a dinner party in an attempt to lull Levi into a false sense of security where they could question him with his defenses down. And thanks to his elated mood, Levi happily agreed to attend the party that Petra had put upon herself to host.

Having been dismissed from work after lunch – another indication that Levi was feeling exceptionally peachy and not at all like himself – Petra had spent the afternoon preparing for the dinner party. Hanji joined her after four, and together the two women finished preparing the food and setting up the table for the guests. They were only expecting Levi and Erwin, although Petra was hoping her boyfriend would be able to make it.

"So…do you really think it's Eren?" Petra asked as she wiped out half a dozen wine glasses. She was no stranger to Levi's pedantic nature.

"I think so," Hanji replied with a smile on her face. "I mean, don't you remember how he kicked Eren's friend to the ground just because the poor guy wanted to take Eren home? It's obvious that he likes Eren!"

The petite strawberry blonde thought back to that incident a week prior. It was definitely not something she had definitely not forgotten: Levi flooring a stranger that was literally twice his size with ease was an image that no person would be able to easily forget. She shuddered at Levi's display of aggression, something she'd always disliked about the man.

"It was scary," she said softly.

Hanji laughed loudly. "Oh, you know how Levi is. Anyway, the very next day I saw him at work…"

"Aaaand?"

"Eren was there when Levi came up to the tower," Hanji whispered, eyes widening dramatically. Petra's eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly for Hanji to continue. Hanji sighed and shook her head. "The poor kid was a bit down because of his little crash and he sort of stormed out past Levi. Shirt-shit barely asked me what happened before he took off and chased after the kid. Never saw him since."

"I wonder what happened next…"

"Unfortunately the parking lot is covered, otherwise I would've been able to see them from the tower!" Hanji said with a pout. "But whatever it was that happened under those covers…"

"…is the reason for Levi's good mood," Petra finished Hanji's sentence.

Just then, the doorbell rang out. With a sigh, Petra excused herself from the kitchen, leaving Hanji with instructions to put the wine glasses on the dinner table. It was much too early to be either Levi or Erwin, so that could only mean…

"Good evening, captain," Petra said with a loving smile as she opened the door to reveal her uniformed boyfriend leaning casually against the wall.

Wearing form-fitting black trousers and a perfectly pressed button-up shirt with a pocket on each breast, donning black and silver four-stripe epaulets and the golden badge proudly bearing Wings Aviation's company logo, Captain Oluo Bossard gave his short girlfriend a cocky smirk before scooping her up for a hug.

"Good evening, beautiful," he said as he held her.

Oluo was the complete opposite of Levi – he was tall and moderately well-built, had a mop of golden blonde hair atop his head with a high under-cut that made the hair on his scalp look closer to brunette. It was no secret that he'd chosen that hairstyle because Petra offhandedly mentioned she liked Levi's hair, but the man would _never_ own up to that. His face was somewhat rectangular, he had a big mouth and small, mostly half-lidded eyes that sat beneath the cocky quirk of his thin, blonde brows. Laugh lines ran down from his nose to the corners of his mouth, making him look nearly half a decade older than he actually was.

He was so unlike Levi who had small, sharp and defined features, dark hair and a compact stature. So unlike Levi yet Petra had still left the raven to be with the airline pilot, finding the stability and love she had been denied while with Levi.

Fortunately, the termination of their relationship didn't affect their working relationship, and in fact, once the awkwardness had worn off, Levi had given Petra a promotion to be his personal assistance. When asked why, the raven simply said 'I can't be fucking my PA and since we're no longer fucking, I want you to be my PA'. Eloquent, as always.

"I can never get used to how good you look in your uniform," Petra said, a light blush coloring her cheeks.

Oluo smirked and wiggled his brows at her before giving her a chaste kiss on the cheek. "I know."

The captain made his way into Petra's small, two-bedroom home, heading straight towards the TV before turning it on for the news. He greeted Hanji offhandedly, not really caring for much besides what he'd missed in the hours that he'd been airborne.

"Do you think Erwin knows what's going on?" Petra whispered to Hanji once Oluo was sufficiently distracted. The last thing she wanted was her boyfriend hearing her talking about her ex.

"If Levi denies anything, we're cornering Erwin."

* * *

><p>Dinner was, to say the least, pleasant. Petra had slaved away on a massive pot of chicken curry and had prepared yellow rice to serve alongside it, along with gem squash filled with creamy sweet corn and topped with cheese, and peppered green beans as sides. It wasn't a big spread but they were only five, after all. And while it was a mostly silent affair, the waves of tension could be felt rolling off Oluo as he continuously lanced up at Levi, who couldn't care less about the man's presence.<p>

Since Petra's promotion, an intense yet one-sided rivalry began between Oluo and Levi. While the blonde pilot felt the need to assert his dominance and continually ascertain that he was the alpha male, the victorious one for having won the woman, the raven businessman couldn't be bothered. Levi had never had feelings for Petra in the first place and when it came to light that their desires in their relationship were vastly different, they ended on mutual and friendly terms. Levi hadn't missed her for a second after that and couldn't fathom why Oluo found him to be such a threat.

After dinner, Levi took it upon himself to wash up just to get away from Oluo's incessant displays of masculinity, feeling himself losing his patience at the way Oluo constantly brought attention to the four strips resting on his shoulders. And what was even more nauseating was the fact that Erwin encouraged the pilot by laughing at his jokes and commenting on the idiotic things the man said. Same company or not, Erwin's flawed sense of loyalty would be the death of him.

When the time came for the adults to enjoy some downtime in the TV room, each with a glass of wine, Oluo had retired for the night. It was an immense relief to have the elephant leave the room, or so Levi thought, but if he had known what was coming as soon as Petra returned, he would've much rather suffered through the insufferable captain's horrifying attempt at joking.

"Sooo…" Hanji began, hands on her lap and tapping her fingers against each other.

"Don't. Start." Levi's voice was low and threatening, but Hanji brushed it off.

"Who is it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Levi swore he saw a flash cross the glass of Hanji's spectacles as her mouth twisted upwards into a maniacal smirk. If he was one to be disturbed, a feeling of unease would be settling itself in his gut.

"Oh, you do," Hanji purred. "I've heard that you've been such a pleasure at work and I have a suspicion as to why. I would just like to confirm my hypothesis."

"I'm not some fucking science experiment," Levi growled before turning his impenetrable glare on Petra. "And are you talking out of the office, Miss Ral?"

The strawberry blonde swallowed thickly as Levi's impugning eyes stayed focused on her, but whether that was to seek an answer or to intimidate her into submission, the woman didn't know. She opted to remain silent in the hopes that those frightening grey orbs would find something else to attempt to spontaneously combust.

"Don't change the subject!" Hanji protested, catching Levi's attention again. The man remained facing Petra but his eyes lazily flicked towards Hanji. "You know…I have other ways of finding out of you don't want to cooperate."

This caught the raven's attention. Caught somewhere between irritated and intrigued, Levi turned so that his entire body was facing Hanji on the adjacent couch. Petra breathed out in relief as she was relieved of Levi's attention, causing the blonde beside her to snicker inaudibly.

"Pray tell," Levi dared her.

"You see," Hanji started, completely unperturbed by Levi's threatening demeanor, "I happen to be friends with this lovely young pilot…what's his name…ah, Eren Jaeger…"

At the mention of the boy's name, Levi's entire posture went rigid. The shift was barely perceptible but to Hanji, who had dropped Eren's name purposefully to observe Levi's reaction to it, didn't miss how the man's muscles tensed up, how his eyes widened just fractionally and how his jaw clenched when his breath hitched. The man quickly narrowed his eyes into dangerous slits as he registered the look on Hanji's face – she had seen it all.

"Eren visits me regularly at work," Hanji continued, eyes locked on Levi's.

The man was fighting with every ounce of strength he had to keep his body in check, but he could feel his own body betray him. His heart rate had risen and his breathing had quickened just a bit, but in his attempt to maintain his composure, he was acutely aware that his deep breathing was highly unnatural. Hanji, no doubt, noticed this, and was continuing to push all the right buttons. As much as Levi wanted to snap at her to shut up, that was the exact reaction the woman was gunning for – as soon as Levi got defensive, she would know he had something to hide.

"He talks to me about all sorts of things," Hanji continued.

Erwin and Petra watched in silence as Hanji pushed to make Levi crack. Both of them knew firsthand how easy it was for Hanji to extort information out of her victims, but whether it was due to manipulative skill or pure harassment was up for debate. Either way, they both knew Levi would cave, it was only a matter of _when_ – Levi had zero patience when it came to Hanji's incessant pestering, and more often than not would give in to the woman.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I just asked him what's going on between the two of you."

Levi's brow twitched at this, causing Hanji's smile to widen. Why did the idea of Hanji cornering Eren make Levi want to shackle the woman up and lock her away? Oh, because Eren belonged to Levi. Eren was _his_. Nobody got close to Levi's property, and Levi would go to any lengths to ensure that. But that wasn't all that irked the man. _If_ Hanji were to asked Eren, what would the brat say? Nothing, of course. Eren wanted nothing to do with Levi…in fact, Levi wouldn't be surprised if the teen denied ever agreeing to fly with him. It irked Levi that Eren felt that way, but that wasn't all he was feeling. There was a sting in his chest, a vaguely familiar burn that he'd hoped he'd never feel again.

"In fact," Hanji pressed on, "I think I have his number. I'll just give him a call."

The raven sighed then, running a hand through his hair. This was the reaction Hanji had been hoping for: she watched with expectant eyes as he quickly poured the remaining contents of his wine glass down his throat before setting the glass neatly in the coaster on the coffee table in front of him. Both Erwin and Petra peered on curiously, neither surprised that Levi had caved but both surprised at how quickly it had happened.

"Fine," Levi spat. "I'm taking Eren flying tomorrow."

He'd expected the delighted squeal from Hanji but when he heard an even higher-pitched shriek come from the opposite end of the room, he snapped his head to the right only to find Petra squirmed in her seat beside Erwin, who was shaking his head with a smile plastered on his face. Levi's brows furrowed together as he glared at Petra, who stopped shrieking and squirming the instant she noticed Levi's enraged eyes locked onto her form.

"That is so awesome!" Hanji cried out, clapping her hands.

_What have I gotten myself into_? Levi just sighed and resigned himself to his fate, pouring himself another glass of red wine to sip on while the women calmed down.

"Where are you taking him? Oh my god, it's in Lexy, right? This is absolutely perfect! Do you like him? Oh no, do you love him? Did you see him again last weekend? Is that why you were in such a good mood this week, because you slept with him? Oh, you slept with him, didn't you? Is he good? He looks well-endowed! Is he? Oh, please tell me _all_ the juicy details!"

Ordinarily, Levi would've cut her rant off with a rude comment or an aggressive gesture before she ran out of steam, but at the moment he really couldn't care any less – yet more proof of his oddly happy mood. He simply let her continue until she ran out of questions to fire at him, not paying any attention to a single word she said because he had absolutely no interest in indulging her.

Once she deemed it necessary to breathe again, Levi spoke. "I don't know where we're going."

Honestly, he didn't. In fact, he hadn't even thought of it. In his mind, he thought it would be perfectly satisfactory for the teen to just go out to the training area for an hour and fly around, maybe let Eren handle Lexy himself if Levi felt so kind. But on the other hand, he wanted to impress the teen; he wanted to take Eren somewhere exciting or fun in a desperate attempt to win the brunette over somehow. Just letting him fly the Robinson wouldn't be nearly enough to earn the brat's liking.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind where you go," Erwin said with a smile. "He'll just be happy to be in the air."

"Tch. That brat would rather stay grounded than fly a helicopter."

"So he says, but truth be told, Eren loves flying. His rotten attitude towards helicopter pilots is simply a result of external influence. I've known the boy since before he was in aviation, and let me tell you one thing, Levi, it's that Eren's at his happiest when he's in the air."

"Whatever."

"Told you it's Eren," Hanji piped up, snickering.

Petra blushed and whispered, "I didn't disagree."

Levi glared heatedly at his personal assistant, knowing full-well that he was unable to punish or even reprimand her for her behavior. She hadn't breached any company protocol and while she may have inadvertently interfered in his personal life, it wasn't specifically against her contractual agreement to do so. She had acted freely and without any harm to him, his company or his reputation, so he had absolutely no grounds to yell at her.

And this pissed him off.

Hanji, on the other hand, was a free for all. Levi turned to the brunette woman and opened his mouth, about to launch into a tirade of insults when Erwin quickly chipped in.

"Levi," Erwin called, effectively silencing the storm before it began. "Maybe you should take him to one of the game reserves up north. If I remember correctly, Eren loves nature and wildlife."

"Is that so?" Levi was immediately disarmed.

The remainder of the evening was spent listening to Erwin and Hanji sharing what they knew about Eren, keeping Levi's undivided attention as he listened to and dissected every single word they uttered about the boy. Petra looked on in fascination as Levi listened, intrigued as to what this boy had done to Levi – the man had never wanted anything to do with relationships or getting involved with people in any way, yet here he sat unable to keep contain his interest as they spoke of the boy.

Eren liked nature and wildlife, but he particularly loved the ocean. Apparently the teen had once stated that if he were any smarter he would've loved to become a marine biologist. He was a successful sportsman at school, playing hockey in the winter months and track and field during summer – specializing in the two hundred meter sprint, four hundred meter hurdles and long jump. Levi was impressed with the hurdles because he knew firsthand how strong an athlete had to be to do four hundred meters, and add hurdles to the mix…Eren was undoubtedly a strong teen. The boy had no interest in typical boy things like cars and engines but did have a healthy appreciation for motorbikes. Hanji had also mentioned that Eren enjoyed gaming as long as it was simple, linear games where he didn't have to think too much, where he could just charge in and shoot.

As simple and as straightforward as Eren appeared to be, the boy had many layers beneath the mask of bravado he always wore. Levi found himself more intrigued with the boy than ever by the end of the night, and as he made his way home after what turned out to be a lovely evening with his friends, he couldn't get his mind off Eren and the little things that made him Eren. The man had learnt so much but nothing at all as his two oldest friends spoke about Eren, and this only further whet his appetite to get to know every single thing there was to know about the boy.

Maybe, just maybe, winning Eren over was the key to bury the burden of his past pain for good.

* * *

><p><em>Love is a funny thing; it always has been and it always will be. He often wondered if it was even natural for humans to feel love or if that was an emotion that had come to the species through evolution and the need to remain in a group for safety. Perhaps love was just some basic survival instinct that had, over thousands or perhaps millions of years, become something more simply because society needed glue to hold it together. And as much as he never wanted love, as deprived as he'd been all his life, he never once wondered what it would be like to be bound to another human being in that way.<em>

_That is, until he met her. She was by no means the first or even the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on, but something about her screamed 'mine'. Every fiber of his being succumbed to this urge to own, surrendered itself to the evolved instinct now known as 'love' and he gave life and limb to the woman in an attempt to claim her. Oh, she was perfect. She was beautiful. Once he had her, he vowed to never forsake her, _never_ would she be alone for another damn day in this cruel, cold world._

_He never broke that promise._

_Five years later and he loved her more than he loved the air he breathed, more than he loved the fact that his heart was healthy and still beating, more than life itself. This woman had become his life, had become his existence, had become the world he hadn't known he'd desired until he was thrust into it, holding her hand. It was undeniable that she was his soul mate, that her very existence completed him. Their bond was so strong it felt like they had been fighting to be together for a thousand lifetimes before this, and that this lifetime, their last life as mortal beings, was their lifetime to be together. It was their time now, and it was clear by how unequivocally and undeniably in love they had fallen, how dedicated they were to one another and how perfect their world seemed, with just the two of them in it. There wasn't a doubt in anyone's mind, especially not in theirs, that they were nothing but destined to be._

_After living a hard life of solitude and suffering, a life of being unloved and abandoned, a life of ruin and pain, he was finally given a chance to love and be loved in return. All the bloodshed, the tears and the excruciating torment he had endured for nearly two decades were obliterated from his memory the first time she kissed him. She was the medication, the drug, the antidote to his suffering, she not only cured him but she built him up to be twice the man he would've been had he been left to his own devices._

_His company's success skyrocketed, reaching heights even the most ambitious people never thought possible. Colossus took the world by storm, buying out massive competition to the point where it was the undisputed world super-power. With the perfect angel at his side, he truly rose to a power and a wealth that he would never have imagined possible for any living man, quickly claiming the title of one of the richest men alive today._

_But he didn't care about money. He didn't care about the company's success or the fact that he had the world's reverence and jealousy. What he cared about was this woman who had taken him there, the woman who had brought his lifeless soul to life with a blazing desire to live everyday at her side._

_And after five years of nothing but perfection, five years of nothing but dedicating his entirety to the woman who had completed his existence, he wanted nothing more than to put a ring on her finger and show the world she belonged to him. While everyone who so much as had access to a media device knew just who the woman belonged to, he wanted to make it official in the eyes of the law. He _needed_ to claim her in every way possible._

_And what better time than now, when she was five months pregnant with their son?_

_Having bought a beautiful, silver dress that would fit comfortably over the small bulge in her petite frame, and a back tailored tux, he went about organizing the proposal that would legalize their commitment and love for one another. He had told her to meet him at his office at three so the chauffeur could transport them to the airfield for a flight on one of the five private jets she had selected and customized courtesy of his desire to have her involved in his work. They would then fly to her favorite restaurant on the other side of the country in Trost, which nestled atop a mountainside only accessible by helicopter, where they would enjoy the sunset over the western ocean and he would finally pop the question he'd been wanting to ask since the day she let him claim her for the first time._

_It was all a surprise, of course._

_Everything was perfect. Everything would be perfect from here on out. They would be married, have a son and that would be the start of their perfect little family. His son would be groomed as he was to take over Colossus and continue the family legacy, but he vowed to be a better father than his own had been. He vowed to say things like 'I love you' and 'I'm proud of you' to build his child's character. He would be the perfect father, and he knew that was not a far-fetched dream because she would be the perfect mother._

_But before they could start their new adventure, before they could even start the evening of their fifth anniversary, he had to ensure that the dress and the tux were perfect. He made the trip home to fetch the clothing he'd hidden in his office, the one part of the luxurious house that she wouldn't dare enter unless it was to bring him tea, lunch, or some sensual entertainment when he was stressed. He smiled at the thought of the things that had happened in that office in the four years he'd had it, and looked forward to making more and even better memories on every surface possible._

_To hear her laughter echo through the house as he stepped inside was a blessing. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he reveled in the angelic sound; it was rare for her to laugh, even around him, so every time she did he took it in like a music connoisseur enjoys a rare orchestral piece. Hearing that elated laughter bubbling up from within her and reverberating off the walls of their spacious home entranced him, pulling him forward to the source of the sound as he longed to hear more and more of it._

_It wasn't entirely surprising for her to be home this early – over the course of her pregnancy, she spent a lot of time at home due to illness or discomfort. But hearing her so giddy made his heart flutter; perhaps she would be well enough for them to make love before commencing with his plan for the evening._

_The idea had his body ablaze with anticipation._

_After storing her engagement ring in his office, he silently stalked toward the source of the laughter, loosening the top two buttons of his shirt as to entice her to the treat he had planned for her. He knew she loved his body, and it was with good reason; he was unbelievably fit and fantastically chiseled, and he used this to his advantage every time he wanted her. This time would be no different, and judging by her elated mood it wouldn't be difficult to persuade her._

_In fact, it was never difficult to persuade her. She had a sex drive that synchronized perfectly with his. As he'd known from the beginning, they were soul mates. Everything about them was synchronized. Everything about her was perfect. There wasn't a damn thing he'd change about her._

_That was until he opened their bedroom door._

_Seeing her bare back to the door would've instantly roused his already heightened primal senses had it not been for two fundamental things, two things that he saw in that very instant that both changed the man forever and shattered his entire world:_

_A pair of hands on her hips._

_His father's voice saying her name._

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><p><strong>JAW DROPS?<strong>

**Please tell me you did not see that coming.**


	11. Chapter 11: Ditched

**A/N: Good morning/afternoon/evening my lovelies. I know we're anxious for the date but because of the timeline of the story being so condensed, patience must be exercised! This chapter has a WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH. I shan't say who, when or why (duh, that's why you're going to read this chapter), but it is indeed a heart-sore moment. ALSO there is a mention at adult themes so just be warned. LAST BUT NOT LEAST there is also an awkward pairing so PLEASE DON'T HATE ME for it. Like in real life, all things happen for a reason.**

**Also just a quick shout out to my followers, favoriters (gawd that isn't even a word now is it) and especially my reviewers. You guys know who you are, especially my favorites *wiggles brows***

**Disclaimer: I do not own SnK, its characters or any other brands mentioned in this story. But I'd be damned if I had half the chance!**

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><p>Waking up on any other Saturday, especially following the horrendous meeting where he met yet another two men salivating to tear him apart limb for limb, would've been an immense relief now that the week was over. Ordinarily, Eren would wake up late and enjoy a lazy day either alone or with his friends and then most likely have a good night out that would render him useless for the remainder of the weekend. That was usually how his Saturdays went, but not this Saturday.<p>

The brunette teen found himself significantly less than excited as he dressed himself at the early hour of seven in the morning that particular Saturday. Instead of excitement for the weekend, he felt nothing but pure dread at what he was to endure for the next who-knows-how-long. He had no idea where he was being taken, what he would be doing or even for how long…all he knew was that today was the day he had to honour his arrangement with Levi to go flying in that god-awful Ferrari red Robinson.

Eren glanced at his wristwatch, hoping that he'd somehow slept through Saturday and that today was actually Sunday…but he had no such luck. His watch clearly said 'SAT' on its weekday display, those three little letters more offensive now than they had ever been before. With a sigh, he looked over to his wall calendar and groaned when his eyes caught sight of the wildly scribbled black lettering across Saturday's block that read 'D-DAY'. Accompanying the ominous script was a poorly sketched image of a helicopter engulfed in flames and a childishly sketched screaming face. All in all, every indication was pointing to the fact that today was indeed Saturday, and there was no way he was going to be able to worm his way out of his appointment with Levi.

"I'm going to die today," he groaned. He ran his eyes up and down the reflection of his body in his full-length mirror, and let out a please sigh. "At least I'll look good when I go."

He wore the pair of black skinny jeans Mikasa had bought him to replace the ones that were damaged in his accident, and they may or may not have been a size to small, but either way, they hugged his form in a way that truly complimented it – accentuating his long, leanly muscled legs and plumping up his firm, round buttocks. He liked the jeans, and despite usually liking baggier clothing, he liked how it made him look. With the jeans, he wore a form-fitting, olive-green V-neck shirt that made him look more muscular than he actually was. He liked that shirt for obvious reasons. And to top the outfit off, he wore his favourite pair of slip-on shoes, the very pair he'd worn the day of his accident.

For an idle moment he wondered if wearing these shoes to fly was a bad omen.

After dropping Mikasa a text saying he was on his way to the airport, very sarcastically thanking her for making him take Levi up on the 'generous' offer, he hopped onto his bike and sped his way to the airport. Eren lived not even ten minutes from the airport and very quickly declined the offer Levi extended to pick him up from his home – there was no way in hell Eren was going to give a man who tried to kidnap him his home address. He wondered if Mikasa had been aware of that incident if she would've still bullied him into calling Levi to take him flying. He thought of telling her about it, but he was sure she wouldn't believe him.

Eren was surprised to see Levi waiting for him in the parking lot; the teen had assumed Levi was 'too good' to be on time for anything, but Eren was horribly mistaken. Seeing the irritated look on Levi's face for showing up five minutes late, Eren quickly deduced that Levi must be a man of impeccable timing. What didn't surprise Eren was the magnificent piece of engineering Levi was casually leaning against: a jet-black Lamborghini. He didn't know much about cars but he knew a sexy car when he saw one, and the car Levi was leaning against was the sexiest hunk of metal Eren had seen in a very long time.

"He has good taste," Eren mumbled as he dismounted his bike. _Or too much money_.

As Eren approached Levi, he couldn't help his eyes trailing up and down the man's body, and noticed then, probably not for the first time, just how damn short Levi was; the car was low and the man looked small against it. He snickered as he remembered a comment Reiner made recently about helicopter pilots compensating for 'life's little shortcomings'. If Levi wasn't the source of that term, Eren would be damned. The teen smirked as he thought he wouldn't be surprised if Levi's height wasn't the only thing _small_ about him.

"Whoa," he whispered to himself, shaking his head. He cleared his throat and scowled, lengthening his strides to close the distance between him and Levi quicker. He did _not_ want his mind to wander in _that_ direction. Not now, not _ever_.

The memory of his late-night shower and the result of seeing Levi in his relaxing fantasy flashed in Eren's mind, causing the teen to blush. _Shit…_

To distract himself, Eren tried to take in as much detail about Levi's clothing as possible. The man was decorated in brand-name clothing, although Eren couldn't identify the logos of half the high-end brands Levi wore. But he had to admit, the man knew how to dress: he wore plain grey jeans that looked more like faded black than grey, stylish leather slip-on shoes and a tight V-neck shirt that matched his eyes perfectly. On his right wrist was a prominent silver watch that looked like it cost more than most college kids' first cars, while his left wrist remained bare.

Levi was not oblivious to the neither the teen's blush-dusted cheeks nor his obviously wandering eyes. The man smirked internally at the wonderful feel of Eren's eyes so attentively on his body while he, in a much more subtle matter, appreciated how damn delectable Eren looked in tight clothing.

"Hi," Eren said when he finally came to stand before Levi.

"Still no fucking manners," Levi said.

"That's rich coming from you," Eren retorted.

The tiniest of smirks tugged at the corner of Levi's mouth at Eren's bratty retort, but he kept any further comments to himself. Seeing Eren show off his body so blatantly was fast dragging Levi's mind to the gutters, and any comment he may want to hurl at the teen would undoubtedly be about a very certain brand of discipline that Levi would just _love_ to instil. So without another word, Levi turned and led Eren to the hangar in which his beloved Robinson slept. She had already been taken out of the hangar and was in the process of being fuelled when Levi arrived. The raven simply nodded at the man fuelling his baby and proceeded to do a quick exterior inspection of the machine, keeping his arms folded tightly against his muscular chest as he appreciated every curve on the pristine surface.

A smile lit up Eren's face as he watched the man's usually stoic features soften ever so slightly at the sight of the Robinson before him. The love in Levi's eyes was as clear as the sun in the sky as the man admired the machine more than actually inspecting it as he was supposed to be doing. His eyes roamed up and down the sleek body of the aircraft as a man's eyes would over a woman's body – tenderness, appreciation and yearning clear in his eyes. The emotions were fierce in Levi's eyes and the teen found himself staring, intrigued that a man such as Levi was capable of looking at something other than himself with that look in his eyes. It was almost mesmerising to see Levi so open, so…_in love_.

_It suits him_, Eren thought idly.

And just as Eren was about to dissect the odd thought that had just occurred to him, the blaring of the chorus of an indie song broke the quiet of the early morning air. With a look of annoyance now plastered on his previously relaxed face, Levi turned to eye the teen just as Eren turned away with a cell being lifted to his ear.

"Horse-face?" Eren said in an unsure voice. A short moment of silence followed and when Eren spoke again, he sounded frantic. "Whoa, whoa, Jean, calm down, man. I can't hear a single word you're saying."

This caught Levi's attention. He fully turned away from the engineering magnificence he called his own and stared at Eren quizzically, watching those oceanic eyes dart from left to right under a furrowed brow as the teen concentrated on whatever it was 'Horse-face' had to say. Levi couldn't help but think that out of all Eren's facial expressions, that scowl made him look the sexiest – that look of intense concentration in those fierce, oceanic orbs would no doubt be present if Eren were to be concentrating on say…satisfying Levi. The man gritted his teeth at the image that flashed through his mind:

Eren atop him, green eyes fiercely boring into his grey as the teen fights every instinct to thrust for his own pleasure, fighting his urge to cum just to satisfy Levi before his own release…

Eren gasped loudly, immediately snapping out of his perverted fantasy of – god forbid – being _topped by the brat_. He shuddered at the thought and focused on Eren's face at the right time to see the colour completely drain from the teen's tanned skin. The teen had a hand in front of his mouth and his mortified oceanic orbs were as wide as dinner plates and rapidly filling with tears as he stared blankly at the ground before him.

"It can't be," he whispered. "Please tell me you're lying…"

Something terrible must have happened. Levi waited patiently for Eren to end the call, suddenly nervous at the sudden change in his demeanour. With the new worry in his mind, any chance of a stray perverted thought was completely obliterated as Levi stared at the teen for a few more seconds before the brunette lowered the device and gently slid it into his jeans' pocket. Eren then turned away from Levi, running both his hands through his thick, chocolate hair as he let out a shaky sigh. Upon closer inspection, Levi could see that the teen was trembling slightly.

"Oi, brat," Levi called. "What's going on?"

At first, Eren didn't respond. He didn't turn to face Levi, nod, shrug or even acknowledge that the man had spoken to him. For a long moment Eren stood still, hands still fisted around clumps of hair, shakily breathing in and out in a desperate attempt to catch his breath. As much as Levi wanted to push, a part of him warned him to just let Eren be – and it was a good thing he did because without any warning, the teen doubled over, hands on his knees and he lost his breakfast on the grass just meters away from the helicopter.

"Oi!" Levi barked, but Eren completely ignored him. _Fucking disgusting!_

The teen heaved until the last of his breakfast lay in a messy, half-digested stew on the dry grass, and still he heaved some more. The painful contractions of his stomach seemingly trying to tear itself out of his body didn't let up for another minute, and once Eren finally gained control over his body, he simply stared at the mess he made on the grass. His vision was blurry and it took him another minute to realise that it was because there were tears in his eyes.

"Eren!" Levi called for the fifth time, and Eren finally straightened out, wiping his mouth on the shoulder of his shirt. Levi grimaced at this but let it slide. "What the fuck's going on?"

When Eren turned to face Levi, the man froze. Those expressive oceanic eyes held nothing but anguish and regret as they met with the man's impassive gaze, and the depth and magnitude of Eren's pain was so great and so easily communicated that Levi found himself absolutely dumbstruck by it. He swallowed thickly, desperately trying to form words but coming up black as Eren's tears continued to fall at a steady rate from those tormented eyes.

"I've uh…gotta go," Eren whispered weakly. "I'm sorry, Levi…"

Without further explanation, Eren turned and briskly walked off towards the parking lot, leaving an awestruck Levi frozen beside his fully fuelled helicopter. Levi watched as Eren ran across the apron, narrowly missing a taxiing aircraft but not even flinching at his close proximity to it. The teen pushed on, not looking back once as he disappeared through the gate to the parking lot. The image of Eren's pale, tear-streaked face and those honest, oceanic orbs showing nothing but absolute anguish was all that kept Levi's pending anger at bay as he realised that he'd just been ditched…by a teenager.

"What the fuck?" Levi ran a hand through his hair and let out a hiss of breath.

Once again, just as he was about to catch a break, something had to come up and disrupt his time with Eren. Something _always_ came up to steal the teen away from him. Levi idly wondered if his obsession with the brat wasn't perhaps misplaced – it was impossible that this was more than just lust if the universe fought so hard to keep them apart. Perhaps that was all Eren was good for; a good, hard fuck. It seemed a lot more plausible than being destined to be. Yet as the man thought this, something twisted painfully inside him that caused him to stop and erase all thoughts of Eren being just a quick fuck. There was no way that an exceptional young man such as Eren could ever be anything less than the perfect lover.

Because if Eren was just a quick fuck, it would've happened by now.

No, there was something more, something much deeper between them. Whether or not Eren knew it was debatable, but highly unlikely. That was why Levi had been so desperate, so excited for this day they were to spend together – he was hoping to not only sort his own feelings out, but to tap into Eren's mind and interoperate the brat's innermost thoughts as well. To implant the seed of desire and let it grow in the teen's emotional mind, to find that small part of Eren that _needed_ to belong to someone and extort it to make Eren _want _to be loved.

Today was supposed to be the day Eren started to fall in love with Levi.

* * *

><p>Eren stormed into Marco's apartment ferociously, completely unsurprised that the front door was unlocked. Having thrown the door open with significantly more force than what was required, he marched straight to the small living room where he found Jean sitting on the floor with his back against the couch.<p>

Jean sat cradling his legs against his chest, arms wrapped rightly around his shins and his chin resting on top of his knees. His usually condescending eyes were entirely devoid of life, the red and swollen orbs staring unseeingly at a spot on the floor. It was obvious that he'd been crying _a lot_, and had it been any other day or any other circumstance, this would've been grounds for Eren to shamelessly mock Jean's pathetic behavior. But this was not the time or the place. Seeing his usually pompous friend curled in on himself on the floor had Eren's heart clenching painfully and his throat constrict to the point where he could no longer breathe. Guilt and grief overcame him and before he knew it, he was seated beside his distraught friend.

As Eren sat beside the unmoving Jean, he could feel the anguish radiating off the taller male. It took all of his strength to rein in his own emotions as Jean's pain overtook him, compounding onto the guilt that was bubbling nauseatingly inside his gut. He swallowed thickly and fought to keep his breathing even, fighting the tears threatening to leave his eyes and the bile threatening to spew from his mouth. For the longest time, the two brunette males sat beside each other in perfect silence, and after the immeasurable amount of time, Jean eventually lifted his head. Sensing the movement, Eren turned slightly to meet Jean's gaze, and the intense culmination of sorrow between green and hazel as they clashed brought a fresh bout of tears to Jean's eyes.

"He's gone," Jean whimpered.

Unable to hold his own any longer, Eren turned away and dropped his head into his hands, letting his unshed tears break free. Pain and emptiness tore through his body as the gravity of the situation consumed him entirely, the overwhelming guilt tearing through his body as the bile fought its way up his throat, burning his insides like acid. Every single cell in his body felt as though it had begun to decompose, spreading a filthy rot throughout his body that devoured him like a disease. The disease ate away at his flesh, tearing at his mind and his soul as he cried, remembering the silent vow he had uttered that fateful morning. The vow he had broken.

_I am not dying today, and neither are you, Marco!_

_I've got this! We _will_ make it!_

"I'm sorry," Eren whispered through gritted teeth. "Jean…I'm…I'm so damn sorry…"

Eren heard Jean suck in a breath as if he were going to say something. Immediately, Eren clenched his eyes shut and uttered a silent prayer to whatever god was willing to listen that Jean would not say 'it's okay' or 'it's not your fault' or 'you have nothing to apologize for'. Because it was _not_ okay. It was _his_ fault. And he had _everything _to apologize for. In fact, if it weren't for him – only him, not a single other soul – then none of this would've happened.

If it weren't for Eren, Marco wouldn't be dead.

"You know what the worst part is?" Jean asked. Eren held his breath and answered that question for himself. _I'm the reason he's dead_. "I called his parents to notify them that he…and t-they…they didn't even c-care…" A fresh bout of sobs rocked Jean's body and he buried his face in his arms. "They don't even care that their only son is _dead_!"

There was nothing Eren could say that would make Jean feel better. Marco's familial life was sad at best. To hear that his parents hadn't even batted an eye at their son's death just because he was gay brought a bout of rage to Eren. The brunette let out a shaky sigh as the pain, guilt and anger coursed through his body, unable to channel it and barely able to contain it.

"Jean…"

"You don't have to stay, Eren. I appreciate you coming but…Sasha and Connie are on their way."

"Okay." Eren quickly got to his feet. He had to leave. It wouldn't be much longer before his emotions erupted ferociously, and Jean had enough to deal with already. "I'm sorry."

Eren was on his bike and speeding down the highway with no destination in mind before he could even comprehend what he was doing. Unable to fight back the tears, they streamed down his face and his heavy breathing fogged up his helmet to the point where he could hardly see the road in front of him. His body shook and convulsed as he wailed, the guilt and the hurt burning him up alive and threatening to steal the precarious stability that held him upright on his bike. Yet through all of this, through his failing control on the machine and his decreasing visibility, Eren pushed on, opening the throttle to the maximum and pushing his bike to its top speed.

A part of him just wished his balance would fail him. A dark, depreciating and self-loathing part of Eren's mind was quickly succumbing to the negativity inside, tempting Eren to just throw the bike over and smash his mortal body to the tarmac to end his suffering. That dangerous part of Eren's mind was courting him, tempting the pained teen with every car he flew by, with every pothole he narrowly missed. It would be so easy to just lean a little too far to the right, and it would all be over. At this speed, no one would be surprised to find the teen smeared across hundreds of meters of highway, obliterated by the impact of the fall. No one would be surprised and Eren honestly doubted no one would care.

If anything, he deserved to die.

* * *

><p>It was already dark when Eren's senses finally came to. His rationality returned after driving his tank dry; after having pushed his bike to the nearest gas station to fill up, the teen was finally calm enough to think straight. He quickly realized he was in the vicinity of the medical campus residence for Karanese University, and decided to visit Armin – the last thing he wanted was to spend the night alone.<p>

Once on campus, it didn't take Eren long to find the exact building Armin resided in. He quickly parked his bike beside what looked exactly like Mikasa's bike before heading to the building to find Armin's apartment. Although the brunette couldn't remember exactly which number was Armin's, he was sure it would come back to him as he passed by the doors.

After walking the third floor corridor up and down twice, Eren decided he would just take the risk and knock on one of the doors. The worst that could happen is some stranger opens the door, and then? They would most likely be kind enough to point Eren in the right direction. With this in mind, Eren steeled himself and raised his hand to knock on the door before him, but just as his knuckle was about to connect with the wood, he heard a sound that definitely should _not_ come from Armin's apartment.

A moan – a deep, throaty moan of a man in the throes of passion.

Eren immediately backed up and was about to turn to knock on the door one down when he heard Armin's laugh. He froze and listened carefully. Armin laughed again; it wasn't the singing laughter Eren was used to, but it was a sinister chuckle Eren had only heard come from his friend on one or two occasions.

_What the hell?_ Eren stepped closer to the door and heard that moan again. That was _definitely_ Armin's voice. The brunette's jaw dropped. His first thought: _Armin's not a virgin?_ His second thought: _Who the hell is he fucking?_

Without another second's hesitation, Eren brought his fist down to the door and banged on it ferociously and continuously.

"Okay, okay! I'm coming!" Armin cried out.

"Yeah you are," another voice in the room growled. It was a familiar voice and it made Eren's face scrunch up. _Impossible…_

Armin cracked the door open, peeking out with disheveled hair and flushed cheeks, his usually innocent blue eyes completely fogged over. When he looked up and found Eren staring at him in what could best be described at pure horror, Armin blushed and shuffled behind the door to hide his naked torso.

"Who is it?" the familiar voice called out. There was no denying whose voice that was.

"Mikasa?!" Eren cried out, brutishly pushing the door open and shoving Armin to the side as he strode into the room.

The smell of sweat and sex assaulted Eren's nose, causing him to scrunch up his face in distaste as he gawked at the naked girl on the bed. Her dark eyes were murderous as they met with his, her hands grabbing at the disheveled sheets to cover her exposed body.

"Jesus, Eren, show some respect!" Mikasa hissed.

Ignoring Mikasa, Eren's head snapped back to Armin, who was covered only by a bath towel tied loosely around his lithe hips. A deep crimson blush lit up his face and he kept his eyes on the floor, away from Eren's probing gaze.

"You're _fucking_ my _sister_?" Eren cried out, two octaves too high.

"W-well, uh," Armin started, but Mikasa interrupted him.

"Armin and I have an arrangement. We're not romantically involved at all, we only sleep together."

"What the hell sort of arrangement is that?" Eren choked out. His eyes were now on Mikasa, glaring daggers at his adoptive sister.

"I'm single, he's single, we both have needs. Simple."

Eren's jaw dropped. "_Needs_? I didn't take you for the kind of girl to have _those_ kinds of _needs_!" He turned back to Armin, astonishment clear on his face. "And I definitely didn't think _you_ would either!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Armin challenged, all embarrassment forgotten. "I'm a healthy young male. I get horny too, okay."

"Okay, okay!" Eren's hands were on his ears, covering them up. "Overshare!"

"So why did you show up uninvited?" Mikasa asked. Eren would've flinched at her words, but he knew she didn't mean to make it sound like he wasn't welcome. Mikasa never has been good with words.

Eren was about to answer when something on the floor caught his eye. It was a royal-purple, phallic-shaped object with an intricate system of straps. The brunette stared at the object for a few seconds, blinking in disbelief – it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out exactly what it was that Eren was looking at, and he couldn't stop the words from leaving his mouth.

"Is that a strap-on?" he blurted out.

When Eren looked up, he saw Armin's face was impossibly redder and the blonde was suddenly very preoccupied with something on his desk. It was clear that he wouldn't get an answer from his best friend, so Eren turned to Mikasa with a horrified yet questioning look on his face.

"Yes," she said uncaringly. "Armin's bisexual so he likes being pegged."

"Mikasa!" Armin cried out.

"It's only Eren," Mikasa said with a shrug. "He was going to figure it out one or other time."

"W-wait, what's 'pegged'?" Eren asked.

Armin whined as Mikasa answered flatly. "I put the strap-on on and fuck him."

Eren immediately regretted asking. The visual that came with Mikasa's description was enough to make him never want to close his eyes again. "You guys are absolutely gross."

Mikasa shrugged. "You're just jealous because you're still a virgin."

"I am n…"

"Don't even try to deny it."

Eren sighed. His virginity was no secret to his best friends.

"So why are you here?" Armin asked. He suddenly fully dressed in sweat pants and a loose-fitting T-shirt.

It all came back to him then. This momentary distraction was just that – a momentary distraction. The innocence of it all – innocence being a relative term – was shattered as Eren remembered the reason he'd ended up in Armin's neighborhood without so much as planning to pop by. After hours of speeding around pointlessly, Eren had worked all the emotions out of his system and found himself to be oddly devoid of any feeling. His mind was completely blank.

"Marco is dead," Eren whispered.

"What!" Armin and Mikasa cried out in unison. Armin continued, "How?"

Eren shrugged. Despite the void, it was still unpleasant to think about. "Jean said that when he woke up this morning, Marco wasn't breathing and his body was ice cold."

"He just randomly died in his sleep?" Mikasa confirmed. Eren nodded.

"It's not impossible," Armin said. "If someone suffers a seriously traumatic head injury they can die days, even weeks after it's happened. It actually happened to a boy in high school once…he had his head knocked in a rugby game and randomly died a week later."

"But the hospital cleared him, Armin," Eren said. "They said he was just mildly concussed and that he'd be okay. They said it wasn't life-threatening."

"They must've made a mistake," Armin whispered.

Silence descended upon the room as the three of them contemplated this. Neither Mikasa nor Armin were particularly close to Marco so the news wasn't necessarily disturbing. What disturbed them both, however, was that the same doctor that cleared Marco had also cleared Eren, which could only mean…

"You need to go get checked up again," Armin said and Mikasa added, "Immediately."

"Guys, I'm fine."

"So was Marco. And now he's dead." Mikasa's voice was flat and emotionless.

Dead. Marco was really dead. Marco had died because of Eren's incompetency. The brunette gasped as, for the first time all day, he thought of the legal repercussion of Marco's death: if he was found guilty of being the cause of the accident, he could get charged with manslaughter. Suddenly, losing his licence was the least of his concerns…Eren could spend the next few decades in prison.

"Shit," Eren muttered. He sank to the bed and sat beside Mikasa, his eyes wide and unseeing as he stared at the floor in front of him.

"What?" Mikasa asked.

"I could…" Eren sighed and closed his eyes. "I could go to jail for this…"

"That's not possible," Armin said with what sounded like a smile. "It's not your fault that he…"

"Yes it is, Armin," Eren snapped. He lifted his eyes to glare at Armin, who had shrunken back at the harshness of Eren's tone. The void had collapsed and anger replaced it. "_I_ was in command at the time the plane crashed. They're busy investigating _me_ as being the cause of the accident. If I'm the cause of the accident, it means I'm responsible for Marco's death. That's a manslaughter charge, Armin. That means jail time."

The silence was short-lived. Mikasa barked out, "Why are they investigating you?"

"It's just standard procedure," Eren said quietly. "Pilot error is the first thing the investigators want to rule out so it's the first thing they investigate."

"What'll happen to your flying if you're…you know…" Armin's voice trailed off.

"My licence could get suspended or even taken away," Eren whispered. But after his realisation, that fact was almost inconsequential.

Suddenly, being around his friends didn't seem like such a great idea. When Eren had arrived just moments ago, he was sure the last thing he wanted was to spend the night alone. But now that all the pity was on him, the last thing he wanted was to be around people who would do nothing but feel sorry for him and fuss over him all night. He didn't want them to stroke his back and shush him as he cried because he knew he was a pathetic excuse for a pilot and a murderer. He wanted to work through this on his own. Now more than ever, Eren really wanted to be alone.

"I'm gonna head off," Eren said, standing up. "Sorry for interrupting your…whatever it is you have going on."

"No, Eren," Mikasa said, "please stay."

"You could even sleep here if you want," Armin offered.

"No thanks," Eren replied. "I kind of wanna be on my own for a bit."

Be alone and let Marco haunt him. Be alone and let his self-loathing consume him. Just be alone and let the repercussions play out in his mind. That was all Eren wanted. To just be alone.

* * *

><p>Levi had been brooding the whole day. Not only was he pissed off beyond belief that the brat had the audacity to just ditch him with a fully fueled helicopter, but the man was also morbidly concerned about Eren's well-being. The teen looked positively rattled after that phone call, so much so that he rushed across the apron with a complete disregard for his own safety; the kid came within inches of being sliced up by a propeller his own size. As much as he hated to admit it, Levi was deathly worried about the teen driving in that state, but by the time his own senses came to, Eren was already speeding off on that pretty little Suzuki of his.<p>

The realization that this degree of worry was something over and beyond his usual shallow lusting after the teen was also a point of concern for Levi. Levi knew he was not ready to love again, if ever, and the fact that Eren simply existed was challenging this already. But now it wasn't only the fact that it was bound to happen that scared him, it was the fact that it was happening so damn fast. Could he already be falling in love with a teenager who wouldn't even give him so much as a second glance?

In an attempt to clear his mind, Levi ended up at the office working a ten-hour shift. The incessant thoughts of Eren were bad enough when they involved the brunette's gorgeous, tanned body, but they were downright mortifying when they involved the teen's emotional state. Needless to say, Levi had tried to call Eren every hour on the hour since the teen stormed off, and was met with voicemail every time until the teen eventually switched his phone off at two.

To say Levi was not going insane with worry would be a lie.

The man eventually headed home, popped a couple of sleeping pills and poured a double tot of whiskey to enjoy while the pills took effect. If he kept thinking of Eren a second longer he feared he may suffer an aneurysm.

Just as the pills started working their magic, Levi's phone started vibrating. It was a long buzz indicating someone was calling rather than texting. With a growl, the man lifted his phone to see who dared call him at this hour on a Saturday night, but his features instantly softened when he saw the name _Eren Jaeger_ across the screen. Relief washed through him and he was quick to answer the phone.

"Eren," Levi breathed.

"_Hi,_" Eren said.

_This kid and his manners_, was what Levi would've thought, but the tiredness in the brunette's tone disarmed Levi completely; it wasn't a tiredness caused by simple fatigue, but rather an exhaustion Levi was very familiar with: emotional turmoil.

"Where did you run off to this morning?"

"_Marco died. The guy that was with me in the crash._"

"I thought it was an emergency landing, not a crash." Levi's poor attempt at lightening the mood by quoting one of the first things Eren ever said to him failed horribly. Eren didn't react at all. Levi sighed. "I know, I remember him. What happened?"

"_I don't know. His boyfriend said he found Marco dead this morning when he woke up_."

Boyfriend? This piece of information stood out to Levi because it told him something vital about Eren, something that would make pursuing the boy significantly easier: Eren was not homophobic. After all, Levi had found Eren naked and snuggled up against the man he now learnt was gay.

"I'm sorry." Levi had no idea what to say, and was perfectly aware that those words sounded horribly insincere.

Eren sighed. "_So yeah. I just wanted to apologize for ditching you like that. We could do it another time…if you want._"

"Of course, I'd love to." Levi flinched at how eager he sounded. It was unlike him, but at the same time he had to get it across to Eren that he was keen on spending time together. "Are you free tomorrow? You sound pretty fucked up and I know the perfect place to take you."

"_Yeah, tomorrow sounds good._" There was no eagerness and definitely none of that characteristic defiance in the teen's voice. Where Eren would usually have a mouthful to say about stepping in a helicopter, the teen was oddly compliant. Marco's death must've hit him hard. Levi wondered if the two of them were close.

"I'll pick you up," Levi insisted, leaving no room for argument. "Text me your address."

"_Sure._"

Definitely no fight left at all. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."

"_Cheers_."

Eren hung up before Levi could even say bye. Not that it fazed the man in the least, but once again he found himself irked by Eren's lack of manners, albeit mildly this time because of Eren's obviously anguished state. A small part of Levi actually pitied the teen and he wondered if this devastating setback in the brat's life could actually serve to bring the two of them closer in the long run. It seemed like a predatory thought at a glance, but the truth was Levi only wanted the kid to be happy. He would do _anything_ in his power to turn Eren's tears to smiles.

For the first time in weeks, Levi went to sleep thinking about what could happen between him and Eren in a purely non-sexual context. Thinking about making the teen happy somehow calmed the man and gave him a sense of fulfillment, lulling him to the most peaceful sleep he's had in years.

* * *

><p><strong>Tada. That's all for today folks. I promise the date will happen in the next chapter. I don't like breaking promises, but we're all only human. Reviews are always welcome, I love hearing what you guys think :)<strong>


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